


A Model, a Mass Murderer, and a Detective Walk Into a Bar...

by WizardPartyForever



Category: Death Note
Genre: AU, Alpha!Light, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Beta!Misa, Human rights violations, M/M, Model!L, Multi, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Omega!L, Omegaverse, Size Difference, Size kink... With a twist ;), Those last two tags make it sound serious but its just fluff and smut, a/b/o dynamics, detective!Misa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-05-30 06:39:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6413041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WizardPartyForever/pseuds/WizardPartyForever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>L Lawliet is an up and coming model bound for success, and possibly murder. Misa Amane is the world's greatest detective, ready to arrest or date Kira(s) - she'll decide along the way. And Light Yagami is God of the new world, so long as L and Misa don't get in his way.</p><p>(An au in which L and Misa have switched places, so that L is the model/superstar and Misa is the great detective. Omegaverse.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for the death note kink meme, the prompt being an au in which L is the superstar and Misa is a super detective. While thinking of the title of this, I was thinking of that one drawing on tumblr with L, Light, and Misa all sitting together with the red string between them, and the caption was something similar to my title. So yeah, I take no creative credit for the title. Enjoy!

Light hadn’t known exactly what he was expecting of the second Kira due to what little he knew about him, and he completely understood that there was no way to know who would be showing up on his doorstep, holding a death note - not that he had expected the second Kira to find him, of course. But there were certain... assumptions he had made, and to see them so blatantly broken down left him speechless.

Before him stood a scrawny man who would probably be the same height as Light were Light not standing above him on the step leading to his doorway. There were many eccentric things about him - his unbrushed hair, dark eye circles, and the fact that the obviously omegan man hadn’t bothered to apply any type of scent blocker any time in the past few days added up to form an odd picture.

Even though there wasn’t nearly enough evidence to get an idea of what the second Kira was like, Light had conjured up an image anyway. He knew that his impostor wasn’t fit to be god, like him, but Light had reluctantly concluded to himself that he would still have to be smart.

But this... creature... was nothing like he had imagined. In place of the crisp, ironed dress shirt Light had assumed anyone chosen to carry a death note would wear, the second Kira donned a frilly black corset and short (indecent, a part of Light’s mind hissed) leather shorts - who the fuck was this man? There was no way he could be the second Kira.

Yet the world seemed to be against him today. The man held out his hand and, for the first time, Light noticed the tell-tale black notebook that could only belong to one person.

For how pretty this man was, Light expected him to speak in that series of high pitched squeals girls seemed to be able to communicate in - but when he opened his mouth, the second Kira spoke in a low monotonous drawl.

“Light Yagami. You left your notebook in class today. I came to return it.”

Light gave the man his most charming smile. “Thank you, I appreciate it - but I don’t believe we’ve met before.” Light reached out and took hold of the notebook. At the first brush of his fingers against the black cover, a white mass behind L became visible in his peripheral vision.

He looked up above the man’s head to inspect the shinigami. It was much less scary than Ryuk, though still frightening to someone who didn’t know what they were looking for. Their gazes met and the monster glared down at him - how odd. From what Light had gathered from Ryuk, shinigami couldn’t be bothered with judging humans and their actions. Could there be some other reason, apart from him being Kira, that the shinigami would dislike him?

“How rude of me,” the man said in a voice that suggested he wasn’t at all sorry for being rude. “I am L.”

They stared at each other for a moment, each trying to figure the other out, before Light bowed his head. “It’s nice to meet you. Perhaps you should come inside.”

His mother and Sayu were, of course, astonished, when Light casually requested that Sachiko bring him and his “boyfriend” some tea.

“I told you I was dating,” Light told Sayu when she stayed frozen at the foot of the stairs, an expression of mixed sadistic glee and surprise decorating her face. He then glided past her and his mother with an arm wrapped around L’s elbow to drive the point in further. Sayu tried to bound up the stairs, nearly jittery with the excitement of Light having a “boyfriend,” but Light stopped her with a pointed look over the shoulder.

“Leave us alone, Sayu,” he said firmly, and closed his door.

“Well,” L began after Light seated him down in his desk chair. “That was rather suggestive. Kira.”

“They’ll leave us alone now,” Light said stiffly. He didn’t know what to make of this strange man; he knew Light was Kira, but could he really be the second Kira? The second Kira was a ruthless killer, (Light had seen proof of that when his impostor murdered those news broadcasters, just for the sake of finding him) not this spindly little omega who seemed to have no concept of scent blockers...

Outside, the smell had barely been there, but in the confined space of his room, Light nearly choked at the overwhelming scent. This wasn’t normal, was it? It was hard to tell, because it was considered polite, if not mandatory, in most places to cover up ones scent as much as possible. Light was pretty sure, however, it wasn’t supposed to be this strong.

He really should have been interrogating the other man on how he had found him and other Kira-related things, but Light’s curiosity got the better of him.

“Are you - uh - close to...?”

He had never been this inarticulate before, but it was an awkward subject.

“My heat?” L quipped. Light winced. You weren’t supposed to talk about those things so brazenly! “Don’t worry. I have it timed down to the hour. I have a while before I need to go home.”

Light raised his eyebrows in shock. “Isn’t that cutting it a little close? You should be in bed!”

L waved it off. “I’m a busy person; I need every moment I can spare. Speaking of so, we’re wasting time - is this really what you want to spend the night talking about?”

Light dragged his gaze away from the underside of L’s thigh, which was visible from the way L sat with his legs up to his chest. How odd, and yet, the image sent ideas reeling through Light’s head that he had him crossing his legs to retain decency.

“You’re right,” Light said firmly. “How did you find me?”

Listening to L’s explanation, Light had to admit that the man was... smart. Light had been willing to accept that he had made some blunder that led L to him - and while, on reflection, showing up in Aoyama had been a mistake, L seemed to have found him purely through talent.

Light looked at L with begrudging appreciation. Perhaps the second Kira could be helpful to him, after all - if nothing else, he had the eyes.

“What do you want?” Light finally asked.

A subtle smirk crawled across L’s face, leaving a nasty feeling in Light’s stomach. “Ah, yes - I was hoping you would ask that. Well, of course I would want to help you in your judgments - I don’t completely agree with all of your ethics, you see.”

Light didn’t try to hide his affronted stare. The nerve of him! Did this man really think he could just come and tell Light how to act as Kira? Light would have reprimanded him, but L was still talking. “In return, of course, you will have my eyes at your disposal. Hmm... There was something else...”

L lifted a thumb to his mouth to chew on the fingernail there. A disgusting habit, Light thought, yet he couldn’t help but ponder L’s fingers - long and slender. Very attractive, as far as fingers went.

“Oh, yes.” L drew his gaze away from the ceiling to look Light in the eye. “I would also like you to be my boyfriend.”

Light blinked, the coughed politely. “I’m sorry - I don’t think I understand what you want from me.”

“It’s quite simple, really,” L deadpanned. “You’re attractive and intelligent, as far as I know. In the time we’ve spoken this evening, I’ve taken quite a liking to you.”

“This would be too suspicious,” Light said immediately. “MisaMisa already suspects me. Dating the second Kira is too risky to both of us.”

“Oh? MisaMisa has already caught you? Perhaps you’re not as smart as I thought,” L said, but Light thought he heard a playful lilt to the words. Was L teasing him? Well, even if he was, Light didn’t appreciate L insulting his intelligence. “Nonetheless, I’m confident that we can pull this off.”

Light was going say no, he really was. L was one of the weirdest people he had ever met, and they had only spoken for no more than five minutes - it would be madness to enter a relationship like this with so many risks involved! But - he needed the second Kira’s loyalty. Would this ensure that L wouldn’t betray him? Before he realized it, Light was nodding his head. This was the right choice; he was sure of it. The sight of L’s smooth white skin and the heavy scent that engulfed him every time he breathed in had little to do with the hasty decision.

“You’re right. We’re both exceptionally smart - but if you turn against me,” Light warned, “I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

L looked only slightly intimidated, and even that melted away into a smirk when his shinigami spoke up. “You will not,” it said in a raspy voice that made Light flinch in surprise.

“Excuse me?”

“You will not harm L,” it said. “I know L’s lifespan. If he dies before his designated time, I will blame it on you and kill you.”

Light cursed internally. The damn monster had to make everything hard for him, didn’t it?

“Very well,” he agreed. “I suppose I got a bit carried away with myself, after all.”

“Indeed,’ L remarked. “Still, I was planning on giving you a piece of information to prove my loyalty. If you want to rely on threats, though... you seem to have forgotten that I haven’t told you my full name.”

Light thought back on it, and realized that L had indeed only mentioned his first name upon introduction. But L had mentioned that he had information, and that was something Light was eager to hear. “No - go on. Whatever you have to say, I’d like to hear it.”

“I thought so,” L said smugly. “Do you know how to kill a shinigami?”

Light’s breath caught in his throat. As far a he knew, shinigami were immortal, so long as they kept writing in their notebooks. Not that he needed to kill a shinigami at this point in time - sure, Ryuk could be annoying, but he wasn’t that bad. Now L’s shinigami - she could be a problem, Light reflected. Even if he wasn’t planning on using it, though, Light was eager to learn more about the death note.

“Go on.”

“Shinigami are prohibited from loving humans,” L began. “If a shinigami kills someone to save the life of a human, they will die, and their remaining years given to that human.”

Light blinked. It sounded like an idea for a cheesy Disney movie, yet Light didn’t have any reason not to believe it, so he nodded. “How did you find this out?”

“As you may have guessed, I’m a model,” L began. Light hadn’t, actually, but it made sense, he reflected. It certainly explained the odd clothes. “So it’s not strange that I have stalkers. A few weeks ago, as I was leaving the studio, a man followed me home. He apparently was quite obsessed with me and decided that if he couldn’t have me, he would kill the both of us. Before he could get the chance though, he died.”

Light furrowed his brows in confusion. “I thought it was Kira,” L continued, mirroring Light’s own thoughts. “Kira killed the man who killed my parents, too - I was honestly contemplating the idea that I had some kind of guardian angel. But then, walking back home, I found the death note laying on the sidewalk.”

Light nodded in understanding, putting the rest of the pieces together on his own. But one part of the story had caught his attention. “Kira punished the man who killed your parents?”

L’s face turned downcast, though he looked more angry than sad.

“Yes.”

“Oh... Well, I’m sorry - for your parents.”

L shook his head. “I grew up in an orphanage; I never knew them. But I kept tabs on them, and a few years ago, we arranged a meeting. They weren’t planning on adopting me - I didn’t want to leave the orphanage; it was a very unique place,” L explained. “But they wanted to meet me. When my caregiver and I arrived at their house though, they were dead.”

Light wasn’t sure what to say about this, and knew that he should probably divert the subject to something more productive, but couldn’t help himself from asking, “What about the man who killed them?”

“He slipped through the system. It was a robber; he hadn’t expected them to be home. I tracked him down myself, and I had more than sufficient evidence - but the court wasn’t going to take evidence from a teenager.”

Secretly, Light agreed. L was smart, but there was no way a teenager could solve a murder case... aside from Light himself, of course. L seemed to know what Light was thinking, though, and kept talking.

“I know I was right - I’ve never solved a case incorrectly before.” Before? “I grew up in an orphanage for extremely smart students, you see. I was training to be a detective.”

“What an odd career change,” Light noted.

“Indeed,” L agreed. His demeanor had dropped significantly, and it seemed the subject had depressed him, though he didn’t exactly seem like a happy person to begin with. “I was planning on becoming the best detective in the world - even better than MisaMisa. But I rather lost inspiration when I was unable to convict my parents’ murderer.”

“... Oh,” was all Light could say.

“Still, being Kira with you should prove to be amusing. I must say, I don’t hold much of a passion for my current career.”

The conversation seemed to have drained Light of energy, and he couldn’t find it in him to protest that no, L would not be Kira with him, he would simply be a tool. In fact, against his conscious will, Light found himself looking forward to working with L. He nodded.

“You should probably be going home,” he said.

L nodded and stood up. “You’re right, it’s late. Walk me to the train station?”

Light recoiled. Walk him home? Well, that was what boyfriends were supposed to do, and his mother and Sayu would expect it of him anyway... “Alright.”

The walk there was not as awkward as it could have been. Light lived close to the nearest station, and it wasn’t long before they made their way down the stairs to where L’s train would stop.

“I’ll wait here with you,” Light decided.

L didn’t protest, and even leaned over to place his head on Light’s shoulder when they sat down at the bench to wait.

“Are - you okay?” Light asked, remembering L claiming to have his heat pinned down to the hour. Really - how foolish! If he was as busy as he said he was, why didn’t he just use suppressants?

L seemed unconcerned, though. “Yes, I’m fine. You just smell good. It’ll be nice to have someone to share my heat with.”

Light turned scarlet at the implications of that, becoming aware of the way L was tilting his head to breath near his scent gland - he glanced out of the corner of his eye to make sure there was nobody watching them. How obscene!

“I - I hope you don’t expect me to join you this month,” Light protested.

“Of course not,” L drawled, though his voice had gone a bit airy.

“Why don’t you use suppressants?” Light asked, both to make conversation and out of curiosity.

L made an indistinct grunting noise. “I don’t have much self control when it comes to things I enjoy. I quite enjoy my heats, so I see no reason to restrict them. Besides,” L continued. “It goes well with my job. Most of the places I model for prefer their models to have a more feminine look. Taking suppressants would negatively affect my career.”

Light hummed in partial understanding. It made sense, he supposed - it was just strange. While most people didn’t cover their scent up completely for the sake of others being able to tell what their second gender was, it was considered polite to mask it as much as possible.

The train took about 20 minutes to come, which L made use of by inching closer and closer untile he was practically sitting in Light’s lap, at which point Light sighed in exasperation and pointedly scooted a few centimeters away. He wanted to blame this behavior on L’s upcoming heat, but his scent wasn’t any stronger than it had been all day, and Light strongly suspected that L just had no inhibitions when it came to public indecency.

When the train finally did arrive, Light had to admit that he was a bit disappointed, not only about L leaving but also because he didn’t offer Light a goodbye kiss. Not that Light would have accepted - he found kissing to be a tedious, unsanitary past-time - but he suspected that it wouln’t be quite so unpleasant with L. For as touchy-feely as he had been for the past few minutes, though, L seemed to have no interest in showing any affections past one last inhale of air at Light’s scent gland before pulling himself up and waving goodbye.

“Goodnight, Light. I look forward to working with you.”

Begrudgingly, Light had to admit that so did he.

 


	2. Chapter 2

 Predictably, it was three days before L called Light, though it was some time before they deemed it safe to meet in public. To Light’s great annoyance, one of the first things L did was demand that in the future, Light tell him who he was going to kill before killing them so that L could pass judgement as well.

“Excuse me?” Light snapped.

L seemed unaffected by Light’s harsh tone. “Yes. While Kira’s plan is logical, you are missing several things. Most notably, a set of checks and balances.” L paused to slurp at his (second that day) milkshake and to take in Light’s affronted glare. He didn’t let it bother him, though. “Of course, the value in your system comes largely from having one figure in power, but even you must know that this kind of authoritarian leadership will never work out in the long term. Perhaps in the future you will have a set of advisers - but for now, the best we have is myself.”

Light stared at him for a moment, and L stared back with a steady gaze. They must look like some starstruck couple, L reflected, and indeed, L wouldn’t mind having a normal relationship with Light. He hadn’t been lying when they met; Light was extremely attractive, and with each moment they spent together L was growing more enchanted with Light’s intelligence. But L would also stand his ground. He returned Light’s gaze until the other let his eyes drop down to his plate.

They didn’t stay there for long, though.

“Light!”

They both looked up to the source of the noise, which turned out to be a young, blond girl standing at the doorway of the cafe.

“Good morning...” Light looked at L pointedly out of the corner of his eye, and L was immediately uneasy. “... Misa.”

L observed her closely. She was wearing a skimpy black outfit, similar, actually to the kind of clothes L modeled in. Perhaps she would know of him? He hoped not, although his identity would be hard to identify right now, with his eyebags and normal baggy clothes. Still, he cringed back a bit, hoping to remain unnoticed.

“Light, I told you not to call me that!” Misa whisper-hissed, and suddenly all the pieces clicked into place for L.

This was MisaMisa, the best detective in the world, L’s former idol... he wasn’t quite sure what to say. Unfortunately, Misa noticed him a moment later.

“Who is this?” She asked Light upon seeing L.

“This is L, a friend of mine from school,” Light said, at the same time that L said, “I’m L, Light’s boyfriend.”

They turned to look at each other from either side of the table. Upon reflection, perhaps L shouldn’t have said that - after all, claiming to be dating Light would likely immediately put him under suspicion - but it was done and over with, and there was nothing L could do now. Besides, Light was seeing a few other girls - he was at no greater risk than them.

“Oh,” Misa deadpanned, in a much duller voice than the cheery one he had greeted them with. She didn’t look quite as put down as her tone suggested, though. She was looking at L with an expression of something like curiosity, head tilted to the side a bit and lips pouted in concentration.

“Well, it’s good to meet you!” She finally said. “I’m Kiyomi Takada, a friend of Light’s. Come on - are you done with that milkshake? Let’s go for a walk.”

L brought a thumb up to his lips in consideration. He wasn’t done with his milkshake, and he really wanted to finish that... but in the end he had to concede to logic and admit that this was an important opportunity to learn about the enemy.

“Well, there was an ice cream stand I saw in the park that I’d like to try...”

* * *

 

Misa held onto the two of them in an iron grip. With the way she insisted on sandwiching herself between them, one would think they were dragging her somewhere between them - but there was no mistaking it; she was leading them.

L’s hand was sweaty in Misa’s, and whenever she swung her arms he threatened to loose his grip, but she had yet to let him slip, and seemed very reluctant to release him and Light when they had to order their ice cream. It was interesting, L thought; though it was clear she was somewhat infatuated with Light, she seemed to be at least a bit curious about L as well.

“That has so much sugar in it!” Misa observed, peeping over his shoulder to look at the fudge sundae he was ordering. “Are you sure you want to eat that? You just finished a milkshake a few minutes ago.”

“Two milkshakes, actually,” He corrected. “And yes.”

Misa looked shocked and vaguely disgusted - even more so when he shoveled a spoonful of chocolate syrup into his mouth.

“Ew. I’m not holding your hand if it’s sticky from syrup,” she warned.

L smirked. “That’s okay. I’m sure Light would be perfectly happy to have you to himself.”

Light himself seemed to be a bit fed up with their chatter. “Come on, let’s sit down,” he urged. “We’re getting in the way of the line.”

The interrogation began as soon as they sat down. “So! How did you and Light meet?” Misa asked. “You two are really cute together! I don’t think you go to our school, though.”

It made sense for her to suspicious of Light suddenly starting to date someone who he had no history of knowing, L supposed. Making up a fake story, of course, was no problem, and L was delighted to see how easily Light could keep up with it.

“It was actually a while ago,” L said. “We met on the street and exchanged numbers - but we just haven’t been able to talk until now, since Light is finally done with his entrance exams.”

“Oh, come on! Is that it?”

L glanced at Light out of the corner of his eye, hoping that Light would get the message and take over for him. He didn’t want to talk too much - he didn’t know how long Misa had been monitoring Light, after all, and didn’t want to say something wrong.

“It’s really not that complicated a story, Misa,” Light chuckled. “We met, we talked, and we went on a few dates. That’s all there is to it.”

Misa seemed put out, though L was fairly sure it was all an act. Still, L was confident that she wouldn’t be able to find any holes in their story. Light being busy with his entrance exams would explain why they hadn’t had any contact before now, and it was simple enough that Misa wouldn’t be able to prove any of the details false.

Seemingly out of nowhere, L felt a sharp pain in his head.

“Ow!”

Misa giggled and held out a fist, holding a strand of L’s hair. “Gotchya!”

“What was that for?” L asked, immediately suspicious of what she was planning.

“My voodoo dolls, of course! I make one for everyone I meet. Don’t worry,” she added, “I’ll make sure to give you only good luck.”

The excuse was, of course, bullshit, but as Misa (probably) didn’t know that he knew she was the MisaMisa, he gave a small chuckle. He couldn’t, after all, demand that she give it back because it was DNA evidence that could be used against him (which was what he suspected it was really for).

“I suppose I’ll have to trust you on that end, then,” L said. He stood up. “You’ll have to excuse me, Kiyomi. It was nice meeting you, but I have things to do today.”

Light immediately stood up as well. “As do I. I had fun today, Misa - we’ll have to do this again.” Light turned to face L, and leaned forward to press their lips together briefly. It was just for show, L was sure, because they were supposed to be dating and this was what boyfriends did - but nonetheless, he felt a fluttering in his chest long after Light had pulled away.

“Aw, you guys are so lame! Light, I thought we were going to hang out later?” Misa called. “Don’t tell me you’re ditching!”

“Of course not,” Light said with the air of someone trying to reason with a persistent child. “I’ll be there - I just have some other stuff to do.” Without waiting for a response, Light set off at a brisk pace, and, for the sake of appearances, L walked the opposite way. Once he was sure he was out of Misa’s sight, though, he turned onto a smaller walkway through the park which would circle around and lead him in Light’s direction.

As it turned out, Light was having the same thought process. They nearly ran into each other, with the way L looked at the ground from his slouch, and Light being distracted by his thoughts. When they recognized each other, they, by mutual agreement, settled down at a secluded bench.

“That was MisaMisa, the detective, right?” L asked.

Light nodded. “I’m supposed to call her Kiyomi Takada, though. And when she comes to school, she goes under a different alias.”

“How much does she suspect you?”

“She keeps saying only a little bit,” Light said, “But it’s probably more.”

“Then we need to be careful. Try not to be seen together too much. What did she mean when she said you were going to hang out together?”

“I come and help out with the investigation from time to time. I’m sure Misa invited me so she would be able to observe me more, but this way I get to see how much progress they’re making.”

“What if they’re hiding how much progress they’re actually making to mislead you?” L asked.

Light paused, looking a bit thrown off. “... I guess that’s a possibility. But there’s not much else I can do...” Light trailed off, his eyes taking on an ugly gleam. “Luckily, we don’t have to worry about Misa for much longer.”

“Indeed, I have her name now,” L agreed. Misa Amane. “Still, I don’t think we can risk killing right after she met me. It’ll put me under suspicion.”

“... You’re right, I guess,” Light sighed.

L stood up. “Well, I actually do have things to do today. We’ll have to find another time to discuss this,” he said.

“Wait!” Light said. “What’s her name?”

“Huh?”

“Tell me Misa’s name - in case I need it.”

L smirked. “I don’t think so.”

“What?”

“I don’t think so,” L repeated. “I’d like to be the one in charge of killing her. After all, what if you decide you don’t need me after you have MisaMisa’s name?” Before Light could respond, L turned the other way. “Have a nice day.”

* * *

 

L furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He could have sworn he had put his phone in his pocket - where could it have gone? Had he dropped it? He decided to turn back and see if it was at the bench where he had just left Light.

The moment he turned around, though, his vision was blocked by two people. He looked up at their faces - Shuichi Aizawa and Kanzo Mogi, he briefly registered, before a blindfold was placed over his eyes and his hands were handcuffed behind his back.

“We’re sorry, sir, but we need to take you in for questioning,” one of them said.

“For what?” L demanded, though he already had a good idea of what for.

“You’re under suspicion of being the second Kira.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugh so my computer started freaking out the other day and while so far it's not affecting my writing progress very much, it may in the future. Trying to format and post this was living hell. Basically, beware of unsteady update progress.  
> Also, I'm looking for a beta reader to look over and edit this right now, so if that seems like something you'd be interested in, hit me up! I'd really appreciate it!


	3. Chapter 3

“Mr. Stalker?” L called out. It had been an act at first; playing cute and innocent seemed like the best way to garner sympathy from his captives and hopefully grant him the best conditions possible. After all, he was just a poor, helpless omega who had been unfairly taken into custody - it wasn't as though he could actually give any valuable information.

But MisaMisa - he was sure it was her, though the way her voice was garbled made her sound much more masculine - didn't buy the act.

Now, with his eyes aching from inactivity and his throat parched after seven hours without water, he really was desperate for Misa to take sympathy on him.

“Mr. Stalker?” She giggled. “You're still going on about that? I'm not a stalker. You know why you're here.”

L didn't reply, simply sagging in his restraints. Perhaps he would be able to get a bit of sleep before Misa started her next interrogation…

* * *

Misa observed L with an unhappy pout. She wasn't getting any results - why wouldn't he respond? He was beginning to slump in the restraints, probably falling asleep, and she considered waking him up. Judging from the dark circles under his eyes, though, he was probably used to not getting enough sleep. Sleep deprivation was unlikely to be an effective tactic.

Not to mention, Matsuda was staring at the back of her head with a judging, disappointed frown, and it was starting to bother her. She resolved to leave L alone for some time, and maybe feed him - it had been a while now, hadn't it?

“Nori!” She called over her shoulder. “Could you bring L some food please?”

Nori, her longtime friend and assistant, nodded, and left the room without comment. Misa turned her attention back to L. He was... Strange.

Though she was a beta, and couldn’t smell the scents of alphas and omegas, she had overheard Matsuda ‘whispering’ to the rest of the task force about how odd it was that L used no scent blockers whencesoever - practically unheard of in their society. His eye bags and terrible posture made him look like a mad man; it was only through heavy concealer, Misa was sure, that he had gained such fame in his shallow profession.

Yes, shallow - and whyever would Light, someone who valued intelligence above all - show interest in a model, of all things, anyway? This was yet another reason for Misa to suspect L of being the second Kira. If L was the second Kira, he would have this mysterious new power to kill without a name, which the first Kira (Light, most likely) would want at his disposal. This would mean gaining the allegiance of the second Kira, and if that meant engaging in a romantic relationship, she had no doubt that Light would do it.

Except that explanation didn’t cover all the bases - like when Misa had first found one of L’s hairs on the envelope of one of the tapes, and remarked obnoxiously, “Wow, the second Kira must be really stupid to have left such obvious evidence!”

Light’s anger had been nearly tangible enough to touch, and he had remained anti-social and seemingly immersed in his thoughts for the rest of the day. Funny, considering that he himself had remarked that the second Kira was probably less smart than the first earlier in the investigation.

It wasn’t too much of a mystery - perhaps Light was in a relationship with the second Kira because he actually wanted to be, and not just because he needed him, as Misa had first assumed. But instead of clearing her head and letting her focus on other problems, this conclusion stirred up distracting feelings like jealousy and admiration toward the couple, and she found herself often distracted by thoughts of what it might be like to take the place of one of them to become a part of what they had.

She had, of course, known Light for longer than she had known L, and therefore couldn’t quite say that she spent as much time fantasizing about taking Light’s place as she did L’s, but even so, L was cute and intriguing and probably smart to top it off. The fact that they both were likely mass murders bothered her, but she made a conscious effort to not think about that part.

It was sad, because, was he not Kira, Misa probably would have considered Light the ideal boyfriend. As for L - well, anyone Light deemed worthy of his attentions was worthy of her own.

Speaking of Light, Misa hadn’t actually seen him in a few days, not since she had informed him that L was apprehended under suspicions of being the second Kira. Again, his anger had been carefully masked, but anyone could tell that it was simmering below the surface. Misa would have expected him to be here at the rescue sooner than this.

A few hours later, her predictions were fulfilled in the form of Light being escorted into the room by Matsuda, already clearly itching to make a new move in their game. Thus, the show was on.

Suggesting that he actually might be Kira wasn’t entirely out of character, Misa reflected. He had done many suspicious things just for the sake of proving he wasn’t Kira; this new concept of subconsciously killing wasn’t a bad idea on his part. “What if… what if I’m Kira, and I just don’t know it?” Light concluded. His acting was impeccable and he seemed to be the epitome of innocence. It took much of Misa’s willpower not to believe it herself.

“I expected you would suggest this, so I have a cell-” Misa began, but Light cut her off.

“What’s that?” He demanded, tilting his body to peek around her and look at - ah, the television, which projected the security camera footage of L’s cell. Misa had tried to step in front of it when Light came in, but there was, of course, no way to completely block the light coming from the screen.

“That is our second Kira suspect,” Misa informed him. “We believe his hair is the same as we found on the envelope, along with other evidence.”

Light scowled, stepping around her to get a better view of the screen. “Why is he blindfolded? And gagged? And tied up like that?”

“He tried to bite his tongue to keep from talking too much, so I had Watari gag him. And the blindfold and restraints are for security measures.”

Light’s frown deepened. “That’s inhumane,” he commented, but allowed Mogi to put him in handcuffs and a blindfold without further protest. In moments he was guided out of the hotel room, off to where Misa had another cell prepared for him.

“So it’s inhumane when his boyfriend is being interrogated, but not when he’s killing thousands of people?” Misa muttered.

Soichiro Yagami heard her, though. “My son isn’t Kira, I’m sure,” he scolded. “But... I’d like to be confined too, for as long as he is. I can’t trust myself to stay unbiased while my son is being treated badly. If he were Kira... I don’t know what I’d do.”

“Very well. We’ll have preparations made.”

Misa looked back at the screen. L was probably pretty hungry... he had refused food, insisting that he only liked sweet things, along with the little pill that Nori had brought, claiming that suppressants didn’t go well with his immune system. That was a problem that Misa would have to fix; it wouldn’t do for L to go into heat during his confinement.

Hmm... Perhaps she could mix them up in his food. Yes, that was a good idea. She would wait a while, though. So far, starvation seemed to be having the biggest impact on L.

* * *

So. The Kira killings had stopped. Actually, they had stopped the third day Light had gone into confinement, but she hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up. After a week of no killings, though, she let herself celebrate a bit. Light had to be Kira. All she needed was solid evidence.

There was some, actually; the hair she had taken from L had proved to be the same as the one found on the envelope that had been sent to the TV station, but L had fooled the rest of the team with his claim that it was from a prank with a friend. So she couldn’t use that anymore, at least, not as effectively.

Misa huffed in frustration at the lack of progress.

Something strange happened, though. Light, as usual was talking in pretentious, cryptic sentences - very suspicious, but not exactly evidence, and then-

“This stupid pride of mine - I give it up.”

Misa scrunched up her nose in confusion as Light’s demeanor changed completely. His eyes widened, and everything about him became softer. His mouth no longer held the seemingly permanent smirk, and when he spoke, his voice seemed more pure.

“Misa, I just realized - I shouldn’t be here!”

It all went downhill from there. With Light’s new requests to be freed, the task force got angrier and angrier with her, and even she was beginning to doubt herself. Indeed, she considered letting him and L go, but Nori, her ever faithful voice of reason, advised against it.

* * *

“MisaMisa! The Kira killings have started again!” Matsuda cried, bursting into the room and shoving a newspaper into her face.

She turned around from where she was fixing her hair in the mirror. “What?” She said.

“More criminals died today!”

Misa snatched the paper away from Matsuda. Indeed, two weeks worth of criminals had died last night. She stomped her foot. “But Light’s in confinement!”

“This is good, though! It means Light and L aren’t Kira! Hold on,” Matsuda said. “I’m going to go tell them.”

Misa slapped Matsuda’s hand away from the intercom button just as he was leaning down to speak into the microphone. “Don’t do that!”

Matsuda blushed and stammered an apology.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. How could the killings have continued? She had been so sure... “I don’t want to tell them yet. They might still confess if they don’t know someone is acting as Kira again.”

Matsuda sighed in disappointment. “This sucks. How long are you going to keep them there, Misa?”

“Please Matsu, I asked you to call me Takada,” she giggled, despite not feeling cheery at all. It did seem to distract Matsuda from the question - she found that blowing a kiss in his direction was enough to get him to abide to her every will for at least a day - but the rest of the task force was still glaring down at her in frustration and disapproval. They didn’t press the matter though, because they all knew, her included, that she was far too stubborn to admit she may have been wrong.

* * *

“How’s L?” Light asked - surprisingly for the first time that day. Misa had found, with great amusement, that the longer she left him unattended corresponded directly with the number of times he asked to check on L. The day before yesterday, in a fit of frustration, she had refused to talk to him all day, and upon later viewing of the security footage in his cell, she found he had asked the question a total of seven times. Today, though, she had given him all of her attention, resulting in a much lower number of inquiries.

“He’s fine,” she assured.

“Is he still in that torture device?” Light asked bitterly.

“You worry too much, silly!” Misa scolded. “He’s fine.”

Well, fine as in he wasn’t dead at least. Misa had to admit that it was unfair - Light got to wear a comfy track suit and the only restraints he had was a pair of handcuffs behind his back. L, on the other hand, was much more uncomfortably strapped to a board and wearing a very chilly garment.

But she couldn’t give him better arrangements now - there had been that time early in his confinement where she was so sure he was about to crack. But then he had gone a bit odd, asking her to kill him, and she was afraid she might have pushed too hard. She didn’t want to risk that again; unlike a certain someone she knew, she didn’t take justice into her own hands. She would leave that to the authorities.

“May I talk to him?” Light asked.

“You know I can’t let you do that,” Misa replied, almost sadly.

...

“I can take a message, though.”

* * *

“Mr. Stalker?”

“L. How are you today?”

L scowled with what little of his face was visible. “How do you think I’m doing?”

Misa ignored this. “Light wanted me to pass on a message for you.”

“Oh?”

“He says he’s thinking about you.”

L went quiet for a moment, and Misa thought she could see a bit of coloring on his cheeks. “Please... tell him that I’m thinking about him as well.” He paused. “How long has it been?”

Misa wasn’t sure whether or not she should tell him, but in the end decided that it couldn’t hurt. “About a month.”

L hummed. “I should be going into heat soon - in a couple of days, at the latest. You’ll need to make preparations for that.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Misa assured. “I’ve had suppressants put into your food so that we won’t have to deal with that.”

L pursed his lips. “I suspected that. Any adverse health effects that may come of this will be your fault, I hope you know,” he said sternly.

“Don’t worry!” She chided. “I’ll take care of everything when this is over.”

It made her sad to think that it would likely be a prison employee attending to the effects of the confinement on Light and L rather than herself.

* * *

The task force was becoming impatient with her. Aizawa especially, she sensed, disliked her, while Mogi remained vaguely annoyed by her presence. Even Matsuda, who normally seemed eager to kiss her ass and suck up to her in any way, seemed a bit tetchy at the poor treatment of her two suspects and his coworker.

Soichiro Yagami himself seemed miserable, though declined when offered better conditions. It was less the living conditions and more the emotional turmoil that troubled him, she was sure, and her heart ached when she put herself into his place.

Something would have to be done, she admitted to herself.

Misa prided herself in her amazing plans. Sure, she could put clues together and find a conclusion, but her plans of action were where her smarts really kicked in. It didn’t take long for her to come up with something.

On the fiftieth day of his confinement, Misa had Soichiro brought to her.

“Where’s my son, and that poor boy you locked up?” The older Yagami asked the moment he saw her, looking around as though Light might jump out from behind a couch. “I told you I wanted to be confined for as long as Light was, have you let him out?”

“... No,” Misa admitted. “But I need your help with something.”

“Not until my son is cleared of suspicion.”

“It involves him,” she offered. “And if all goes well, he’ll be freed afterwards.”

“What happens if it doesn’t go well?” Soichiro asked stiffly.

“Well, Light will be sent to prison… and you’ll be dead.”

Soichiro didn’t look quite sold on the idea, but Misa knew it would only take a small push before the idea of his son’s freedom was too valuable to turn down.

“Pretty please?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback? You know how it fuels us writers!  
> Also, I'm still looking for someone to look over my work, I know beta readers are sooooo 2008, but I'd really appreciate it! Any volunteers?


	4. Chapter 4

 

L furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at the sound of the door in his cell creaking open - he had already been fed today, not more than three hours ago, he was sure. Perhaps he had fallen asleep and lost track of time? He felt the metal blindfold being taken off, accompanied by the Squeers of the hinges attaching it to the chair, and prepared for the harsh glare of the white room.

Before he had time to adjust his eyes, though, a harsh female voice snapped, “Close your eyes!”

He did so quickly, though it confused him even more. The blindfold wasn’t taken off for anything other than going to the bathroom and eating, and since it was becoming clear that neither of those were the case, this had to be a special occasion.

This person wasn’t Misa, he knew, but the other girl who came in to manage him when something had to be done in person. She wouldn’t give him a name, but he had heard Misa refer to her as Nori over the intercom, so that was what he referred to her as in his head.

Another blindfold was placed over his eyes, this one much less heavy duty - a soft white cloth, from what he could tell.

“What's going on?” He asked. A week after his threat to bite his tongue, Misa had allowed the gag off, to his great relief.

As expected, of course, his caretaker didn't answer. Instead, he was guided across the room - the opposite way, he recognized, from the direction of the bathroom.

“Are we leaving?” He fired, and then, knowing she wouldn't answer, he said, “I'm tired of the blindfold. Is this really necessary?”

A short walk later he was guided outside and pushed into the backseat of a car. It instantly rumbled to life, as though the driver had been impatiently awaiting his arrival, and they lurched into motion.

“Where are we going?” He asked, hoping that whoever driving might have more sympathy for him than Nori had.

This time he actually got an answer. “We're going to meet Light,” said a gruff voice that he was pretty sure he recognized from when he was originally arrested. After a moment, though, he processed the answer and completely disregarded the identity of the man.

“We're seeing Light?”

This time, it was Nori who answered. ‘So she's here too,’ L thought grumpily. “MisaMisa has something planned. You're not allowed to ask any more questions.”

L powered on anyway. “Where's Watari?”

“He was apprehended for drug possession,” she snapped, clearly annoyed at his refusal to obey directions.

L nearly laughed at the absurdity of the claim. Watari never even drank, let alone did drugs. Still, it was concerning that, from the sounds of it, they still had him under arrest. He frowned for a moment. He would make sure to deal with the situation once he was in a better position to negotiate; now, while he was restrained and blindfolded really wasn't the time.

“Where has Light been?” L asked, to distract himself.

There was a moment of silence, as though the two up front were deciding whether they should answer or not. “He… has been confined as well,” Nori finally answered.

“What! Why?” L demanded.

The woman cursed. Perhaps she had thought that L already knew. “Never mind. No more questions.”

L knew that she meant it this time, and kept his mouth closed.

* * *

 

Through the blindfold L’s vision went dark, which was nothing new - he guessed that they must have been under a tunnel. A moment later, though, the car slowed to a stop, and L perked up, senses suddenly alert to his surroundings.

He heard the two people up front shifting around and getting out, before his door clicked open and slender fingers - it was Nori, then - turned his head to the side to unfasten the blindfold. The piece of cloth fell away, and he looked up into her face.

“Aren't you going to undo the handcuffs?”

“No.”

Nori actually seemed like a generally happy person, though she never smiled at L. She had brown hair and brown eyes, and always wore a suit, almost reminiscent of a butler outfit. Today she looked especially strict, but L knew she wasn’t always like this; he had witnessed her and Misa cracking jokes to each other over the intercom while she was tending to him. This put him further on guard; what could be in store to make her act so grim?

“You'll be getting into that car,” she directed, and for the first time he looked over at the car parked behind them. Out of it stepped-

“Light!”

Light looked around for a moment, before his eyes landed on L.

“L!”

L scrambled out of the car to greet him as best he could with his hands fastened behind his back.

“How are you?” Light asked.

L shrugged. “Sore.”

Light nodded, then stepped closer to press his lips close to L's ear. “I think Misa’s letting us go,” he whispered.

“Really?” L asked.

“That's all I can think of. I mean, the killings stopped, but… that’s not proof we're Kira, is it?”

L bit his bottom lip, unable to do so to his thumb like usual. “No,” he finally decided.

“I hope so…” Light sighed, and rested his chin on L's shoulder.

Tentatively, L did the same with Light, his stomach doing flips at the action. It was odd - they had only known each other for a short amount of time. He remembered meeting Light at his house to… to what? And then their date, where he met MisaMisa. Those were the only two times they had been together, yet somehow he knew… Light was special.

He tried not to think about Kira-related implications of that.

“Hey! You two! No whispering!” Shouted Nori from where she and two other men - Light's dad and the man who drove him - were talking in hushed voices.

L stepped back. “We should probably get in the car.”

“Yeah,” Light agreed.

A short while later, Soichiro Yagami settled into the car.

“Where are we going, dad?” Light asked.

Soichiro stayed quiet. A few minutes passed, during which it seemed like he had forgotten the question, when finally he answered.

“MisaMisa has determined that you two are, in fact, Kira.”

L’s nearly choked; as it was, he felt his heartbeat jump and restart, twice as fast. Light, too, jumped up in his seat.

“What? No, dad!” Light immediately protested.

“She's having you executed at a private facility… without trial.”

“But-!”

“Be quiet, Light,” L said softly.

Light turned to face him, protesting and frustrated, but L was too caught up in his own thoughts. Misa… Misa wouldn’t do this, would she? Sure, she seemed a bit flakey, but she was still the world’s greatest detective! How could she have gotten things so wrong?

He knew he wasn’t Kira, knew that Light wasn’t Kira. (Except, there was a small part of his brain that whispered, ‘don’t the clues all fit?’ Which he tried hard to ignore, but at times like this, it managed to worm its way into his conscious - after all, it was part of himself. It had to have some reason to it.)

“Dad, you have to help us! I'm not Kira, don't you believe me?”

The car jerked, and L looked out the window to see that they had swerved off the road into an open patch of brown grass.

“What are we doing?” Light asked, voice tinged with panic and… possibly hope. L couldn’t blame him. He was tempted to let himself believe that Soichiro had seen reason and was going to help them.

“I won't be able to stand seeing you executed,” Soichiro sighed. “So… I'm going to kill you myself.”

Light furiously shook his head. “No! Dad - you can't!”

L too found himself panicking, though much more quietly than Light. He wondered if he could break through the window with his handcuffs, and was in the process of wiggling out of his seat to try it, but suddenly there was a gun pointed at his head and he was frozen.

“Don't move. I'm not planning on killing you.”

L wordlessly opened and closed his mouth, eyes not wavering from the gun. Soichiro was explaining his plan, to commit murder-suicide and leave L to be found by the authorities, but all L could think about was the gun that the older Yagami was carelessly pointing at his face.

He was reminded of another time he had had a gun pointed at him, shortly after starting his career as a model. Beyond Birthday, although L knew him as Rue Ryuzaki, his makeup artist, would be known as L’s first stalker.

L wasn’t stupid; he still had his detective skills. He wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t notice that there was a man following him home every night… but upon confrontation, he learned that the man was much more dangerous than he seemed. Before he knew it, L had had a gun pressed to his forehead and no way of escape (admittedly, confronting the man at the dead end of an alley hadn’t been the best idea).

“If I can't have you, no one can!” was the last thing the man had said before… not pulling the trigger.

“Rue?” L had asked, tentatively, at the sudden blank look in the man's eyes.

He didn't respond. Less than a minute later, he collapsed. It was a heart attack, L learned.

At that moment, L hoped desperately for the same fate to come to Soichiro.

L was pulled out of his thoughts by the motion of the gun, as Soichiro swung it from his to Light's direction.

L scooted over to sit as close as possible to Light, shifting his arms so that he could squeeze Light's handcuffed hand in his own. Light squeezed back, but his eyes didn't move from the gaze of his father.

“From one murderer to another… I'll see you in hell.”

L squeezed his eyes closed. Light squeezed his hand. Soichiro squeezed the trigger.

_Bang._

* * *

 

 

L took a deep, shuddering breath and looked up. Soichiro was still turned to face them, his small handgun pointed towards Light, who was… not dead.

The bullet had been a blank.

Soichiro sighed deeply. “Misa… I hope that performance was to your liking. As you can see, I am not dead. I will be returning these two to headquarters shortly.”

Light was shaking, actually trembling in the aftermath of the act. His hand was clammy and sweaty in L's. “What the hell was that, dad?” He demanded.

The older Yagami turned the car around and pulled onto the road. “A test. Misa figured that… were I to threaten Kira, he would not hesitate to kill me.”

The two were silent, letting the information sink in.

Emotionally exhausted, L slumped against Light. He couldn't fall asleep now, with the adrenaline from today's events pumping through him, but it would be nice to close his eyes for a bit. Light had yet to let go of his hand, which twisted his arm in an unpleasant position, but he didn’t mind, because Light’s hand was so very warm in comparison to the cold event they had just witnessed that he was reluctant to let go.

Light, too, seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and leaned into L. The laid together until the car rolled to a stop in front of a large hotel.

* * *

 

After all she had put him through, L couldn't make himself greet Misa as enthusiastically as she greeted him upon meeting her in the building.

“Light! L!” She cried upon their arrival, and ran forward to wrap her arms around both their necks.

“Good afternoon, Takada,” he acknowledged, a small grin twisting his face at the false name. “What are you doing here?”

“I'm on the Kira task force, of course.”

“Oh?” L asked, in false bemusement. “I was under the impression that you were a classmate of Light's.”

“Takada has been using that as a guise to stay in touch with me,” Light explained, which was odd. L thought it would have been obvious that he already knew that, because didn't Light remember confirming that Misa was _the_ MisaMisa? But then, why would he do that - telling Misa's identity to his boyfriend of only a week? L resolved to puzzle over that piece of information later.

“Well, it's nice to see you again… Takada.” Truth be told, L was having a bit of a hard time being friendly with her knowing that she was behind his confinement. However, he was pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to know that she was MisaMisa the detective, and so there was no excuse for him to be hostile.

Misa began to explain the situation to them, which L was not happy with. After all the tests and trials she had put him and Light through, they were still under suspicion? Light was even angrier than him, being quite vocal about his displeasure with the situation, though L thought he may have been secretly happy with being a bigger part of the investigation.

In the end, of course, despite the many protests from the task force that she couldn't do that to Light, Misa got her way, and so she and Light were connected by a six foot chain.

Light held up the handcuff distastefully.

“So what about me?” L asked once Misa was done explaining what was to be done with her and Light. “Will there be cameras in my apartment?”

“Sort of,” Misa said. “I've had a new investigation building built for us. You'll live there, where we can monitor you. And while you're at work, Mr. Matsuda will be your manager, so we can monitor you there as well,” Misa finished, obviously quite pleased with herself.

“Thank you,” L said stiffly. The feeling of hostility that had been fading over the past few minutes returned full blown at the mention of his caretaker’s situation. “But I think I would prefer to keep Watari, as we're quite close. Where is he?”

Misa bit her lip and blinked. “I had him apprehended - for the investigation, you know? ”

“Oh? And where is he?”

“Um - if you really insist, we can get him back,” Misa said, evading the question, but it was enough for L.

“I do insist,” he snapped. There were many things he would tolerate; after all, Misa was just doing her job, but mistreatment of Watari was not acceptable.

“Matsuda will still have to watch you, you know.”

“That's fine. I'm tired,” he then decided. “Are we moving into the building tonight?”

As it turned out, they wouldn't be moving for three days, during which L would have to stay in the room the team was using for the investigation. It wasn't too bad; at night everyone but Light and Misa would be going home, and it was a very large suite. Besides, L didn't sleep that much. This would be a great time to learn more about the investigation... and Kira.

L wasn't sure how he felt about Kira. On one hand, he had punished his parents’ murderer. On the other, L didn't completely agree with the ethics of the situation. Whatever his stance might be, though, some instinct told him to side with Light and help to catch Kira… for the moment.

If he suspected that his opinions might change in the future - well, that didn't mean he was the second Kira, did it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys I'm so sorry for the wait! My excuse for taking so long to update is that I'm doing camp NaNoWriMo this month and I'm struggling to get up my word count, so I haven't had much time to edit. I'm actually quite far in this; I'm almost done with chapter six, but i've been so focused on getting up my word count that I haven't had much time to edit, so I just have a whole bunch of terrible unedited writing in my document.  
> I know this chapter was a bit lackluster, but I promise that chapter five is extra beefy, and chapter six has a small surprise...


	5. Chapter 5

L stretched out on the bed the third morning, excited to move into the new building. Living in the middle of the investigation headquarters had been exciting for some time, but it was becoming a bother, and he was looking forward to having his own room once again. Living here, it wasn’t as though he could lock himself away in the bedroom when he got tired of all the hustle of the investigation, for then he would surely die of boredom, but the business was starting to wear him out.

From his left, he heard a small feminine whine. “L! What are you doing up so early? It’s five in the morning!”

Frankly, it surprised him that he had even been able to sleep this late, even if they hadn’t gone to bed until midnight.

“I’m not tired,” he said simply, and hauled himself out of bed to go to the bathroom. On the other side of the bed laid Light, who had insisted on sleeping on the floor so that L and Misa could get the bed. How chivalrous, considering it was Misa’s fault they were in this predicament. L would have made her sleep on the floor, were he in Light’s place.

He nudged Light with his foot.

“Huh?”

“Bed’s open,” he muttered and walked on.

L had to admit that he wasn’t entirely happy with the idea of Light sleeping in the same bed as Misa, as the chain mandated, along with showering and eating and everything else that came with being around someone for twenty-four hours a day. He had yet to bring it up, though, both because he didn’t want to seem jealous and because he knew Misa wouldn’t take them off just because he didn’t like the idea. Besides, he knew it was going to happen, so there was no use making Light sleep on the floor when there was a perfectly good bed available next to him.

L finished stripping stepped into the shower with a sigh, relishing the feeling of cleanliness even after three days of being free. Despite his mangy appearance, L cared quite a bit about personal hygiene, and not showering had been one of the worst parts of confinement.

The mesh loofah that he used was white, while Misa's was pink, and Light's was blue. L was rather partial to the blue one, but Light had been the first to shower upon arrival here (under the supervision of the beady camera lense in one corner of the structure, of course) and claimed it before L could get to it first. Unwilling to take the pink one, and knowing Misa would probably want it anyway, L had taken the last remaining one upon his first shower here. He kept it on the top shelf, where he would also keep his products if he had any, but he really had no preference as to any specific brand. Instead, he shared with Light and Misa (without their knowledge - he didn't think either of them would appreciate it if they knew. Instead he let them believe that he just didn’t use anything).

Today he guessed that he was using Misa's shampoo - it was slightly flowery and he was pretty sure he had smelled a trace of it while waking up. It was quite pleasant.

He got out quickly, too excited to sit in the shower for long. He had been antsy for the past few days, springing back from the affects of his confinement quickly and ready to get back to work. But the task force was busy moving equipment to the new building and wrapping up unfinished reports from his and Light's confinement, and there was no one to supervise him were he to go out.

Misa had also not gotten around to getting back Watari, despite him reminding her every day. It displeased him, to say the least.

It would also be nice to wear his own clothes. Misa had instructed that his personal belonging be transferred to the new headquarters, meaning that there was nothing for him to wear aside from the hospital gown-like garment he had worn during confinement. Misa had given him a pair of sweat pants and sweat shirt that she had, “found lying around,” but he strongly suspected that they were actually hers, because the pants were short enough to expose his ankles, and he had discovered that they were labeled as woman's. Though they fit well enough, he disliked the feeling of wearing someone else's clothes.

By the time he stepped out of the bathroom, Light and Misa were just rousing from sleep. Light had probably not gone back to sleep since L had awoken him, instead having to wait for Misa to wake up. L grinned; the situation wasn't ideal, but at least he wasn't handcuffed to anyone.

Misa sat up and gave an exaggerated yawn, raising her arms high above her head and making a show of arching her back in a surreal curve.

“We're moving today, so let's try not to take too long getting ready,” she remarked as though she hadn't been the last person getting out the door for the last three days, while L and Light were always ready before her.

Living together, they had learned, was difficult in the sense that they all took an extraordinarily long time in the bathroom. L spent his morning and night time bathroom time brushing his teeth, washing his face, and showering, while Light aimed more towards keeping himself looking good (not that he was lacking in personal hygiene). Misa took by far the longest, doing her makeup, curling her hair, and any other imaginable primping that might be needed for a day at work, and so, they were nearly always the last one’s to arrive in the main room to meet the task force.

Astonishingly, it only took an hour for the three of them to be packed and ready to go. L supposed that he could leave the room whenever he wanted; after all, headquarters was just in the foyer of the hotel room - one room over. But he never left until Light and Misa were ready for the day as well, so they all exited the bedroom together.

For the past few days, they normally arrived in the next room to see the rest of the task force, bleary eyed from waking up early, stumbling through the door or already working. Today though, only Nori was waiting for them.

“Are you ready, Misa?” She asked in a bubbly voice reserved only for the detective.

“Yep!” Misa confirmed holding up her small suitcase as proof.

Nori led them out the door, saying, “Good. By the end of the day we’ll be all moved into the new building!”

The two of them chatted for the rest of the walk down to the garage. Misa enthusiastically called shotgun, before realizing that the chain between her and Light would make that difficult, and pouted during part of the drive, though she was quickly distracted from that disappointment by the view out the window.

“I haven’t been to Japan in ages,” she said dreamily after she had seemingly tired herself out from pointing out everything interesting. “I used to live near Tokyo, but-”

“Misa, we’re here,” Nori said loudly through the little window that connected the driver’s seat to the back of the limo, probably to stop Misa from revealing too much personal information to her Kira suspects. L was beginning to suspect that Nori was half the brains of “The World’s Greatest Detective.”

After the thought passed through his head, his brain moved onto more important things, such as them being at their destination, and he scampered across the seat to look out the window.

The car was parked on the curb in front of an unassuming structure, blending perfectly with the other business buildings and headquarters surrounding the area. It was extraordinarily tall, seeming to stretch on for miles, and L vaguely wondered why they would ever need a building this big for an investigation team of seven people (eight, including him). Then again, Misa struck him as quite the extravagant type; perhaps she had simply done it because she could.

"Come on L, you're blocking the door!" Misa complained. "I want to stretch my legs!"

L shook himself out of his thoughts, but before he could open the door, it opened seemingly on its own from the outside. Nori smiled gently down at him, though he thought it might have been a smirk at how, leaning against the door as he was, he had nearly fallen out onto the sidewalk. "This way please," she instructed.

The trio followed Nori to a side entrance to the building and through the tour of the ground floor, which appeared to simply be a set of security measures - all sorts of metal detectors, identity confirmation points, and security checks. Nori boasted proudly that she had had the biggest hand in designing the place - it was mentioned like a side note, in a "Fun Fact!" sort of way, but L and Light could both easily tell that it was meant to impress them. And it did, even if Nori did get on their nerves a bit; there was no denying that the building was secure and well built. Misa, on the other hand, seemed merely bored, as she no doubt already knew all of this.

When they were done going over the security checks, they all piled into an elevator that took them up to the second floor.

"This will be the main investigation room," Misa said, displaying the wide hall. After that, they were shown all the amenities on that floor; bathrooms, kitchen, and coffeemaker, but it seemed that most of the building was going unused for now. L was grateful; he didn't want to tour the entire 23rd floor building.

Finally Misa guided them into the elevator and took them up to the 19th floor. When they unloaded, they found themselves in a short hallway.

“Surprise!” Misa squealed. “We're on the same floor! You can visit me and Light whenever you want!” She told L, motioning towards the two doors that stood across from each other halfway down the hallway.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that one of the doors had a small name plate on it, simply reading “L.” The other, as expected, had a similar plate reading “Misa,” and another underneath that said, “Light.”

“This is my room, I'd assume?”

“Yep!”

L gently pushed open the door. “Thank you Misa. I'll be settling into my room now.”

“Uh - okay,” Misa said, slightly put down. “I'll have Nori bring you something to eat, okay?”

L nodded. “That would be nice. Thank you, goodnight.” He looked up behind him to lock eyes with Light. “Goodnight, Light.”

“Goodnight, L.”

* * *

 

Misa flopped down on the bed under the uncomfortable gaze of Light.

“I'm so tired!” She moaned. “I wish we could just sleep.”

Light couldn't see what was so exhausting about riding in a car for half an hour, and according to the clock hanging on the wall, it was barely eleven in the morning. Still, he nodded and sat down next to her, agreeing, “Yeah, today was pretty busy.”

Misa sat up enough to wave in the direction of the dresser. “Your clothes are in there,” she said. “If you want to put something else on. I know that outfit must be pretty grimy.

Light gave and uncomfortable laugh. “Uh - yes, thank you.” After getting out of confinement, Light had been given a pair of slacks and a tee-shirt that Misa had had Matsuda get from the store down the street, because apparently his clothes had to be searched to make sure he wasn’t hiding anything suspicious in them before they were brought to headquarters. The jeans were too big, and had to be fixed around his waist with a belt, while the shirt was too small, clinging to him uncomfortably, not to mention that he had been wearing them for three days. Needless to say, he was eager to change.

He slid into a pair of khakis, reveling in the feel of finally having the freedom to wear his own clothes back. He took off his old shirt in preparation to put on a new one, when the weight of it tugged on the handcuff and reminded him that he couldn’t do that quite yet. Being connected to Misa in this way was going to take a while to get used to, he thought forlornly. As eager as he was to catch Kira, the discomfort of the situation made itself felt along every step of the way.

“Misa - could you undo the handcuff please?”

“Huh?” Misa asked, shaking herself from the half-asleep state she seemed to be in. “Oh, right!”

“It’s a shame L didn’t want to stay with us,” she said as she undid the handcuff, probably trying to make conversation.

“Well, he probably wants some alone time,” Light responded. Even he couldn’t hide from himself the note of longing he heard in his voice.

Misa sighed. “He’s so weird; I can’t believe that after fifty days of not being able to socialize he wants to hide away in his room?”

Light gave an indistinct grunt; he didn’t know much about L but suspected that, unlike Misa, he was quite introverted, and, even after fifty days with little social contact, he would appreciate the time to relax on his own. After all, interrogation and confinement could hardly be considered quality alone time.

Light and Misa laid in bed for a few minutes; Light found that, despite his scathing thoughts towards Misa’s comments earlier, he was actually a bit tired himself. It wasn’t as though any detective work was going to get done anyway; the taskforce was still busy setting up equipment, after all, so taking a bit of a nap couldn’t harm anyone.

As soon as he finished that train of thought, Misa’s phone woke him from his dozing.

Misa answered with a, “Huh?”

...

“Yeah, hold on,” she said after a pause. “What do you want for lunch?” She hissed in Light’s ear, and Light reflected that they must look like quite the couple. He instantly berated himself for the thought; he had a boyfriend!

“Whatever you want.”

Misa gave a loud, dramatic sigh, and pulled the phone up to her ear. “Salad,” she said. “Chicken Ceasar, actually.”

The conversation that followed was a series of “Huh,” “Yeah,” and “Okay”s on Misa’s end, with a few full sentences thrown in but not enough for Light to be able to tell what the conversation was about until she hung up.

“L won’t take his suppressants,” Misa groaned and flopped down on the bed. “Why does he have to be so difficult?”

“Why is that - I mean, what’s wrong with that?” Light asked, blushing at the subject matter.

“He can’t go into heat right now! Right after confinement? His body is already weak from fifty days in restraints, don’t you know what a huge impact strain that would place on him? Silly,” Misa chided.

“Oh,” Light said dumbly. “Well what are you going to do about it then?”

“Exactly what we’ve been doing, obviously. I’ll have Nori mix them into his food.”

“What?” exclaimed Light. “You can’t do that!”

Misa rolled her eyes. “Relax, Light. It’s fine. I’m sure he already knows we’re going to do it anyway.”

Light slumped on the bed with his arms crossed. Logically, he knew that it was for the better and that going into heat in his current physical state would be very unhealthy, but that didn’t stop the uneasy feeling Light had about it.

“Besides,” Misa began, perhaps in hopes to set Light’s mind at ease, “If I were him, I wouldn’t want to go through that if I didn’t get to have you around,” she teased.

This only served to make Light slightly flustered.

“Come on. Let’s go eat lunch,” he muttered, pulling Misa behind him out the door.

They left the bedroom to wait in the sitting room for Nori to come by with food. Misa seemed quite put out throughout the meal that Light wasn’t being talkative, but really, what could she have expected? Light refused to feel bad for not wanting to make conversation.

About halfway through the meal, the two of them heard a faint knock across the apartment - the front door, they concluded. When Misa went to open it up, they were met with the sight of L, looking as surly as ever, but he did seem to have a slight blush coloring his cheeks. How curious.

“I... Wanted to eat with you two,” L muttered, after a moment of the three of them standing at the door in silence.

Misa instantly perked up. “Really? Great! I’ll have Nori bring you something too-”

“I should clarify. I have already eaten,” L interrupted. “I would like to... Spend time with you two.”

“Oh - yeah, that’s fine!”

The trio sat in silence as Light and Misa ate their salad. (Light greatly regretted not specifying anything he wanted for lunch; this was extremely unsatisfying.) Nori (Misa’s... Butler? Light had yet to figure out what the omnipresent woman’s business around here was) had also brought up a cookie for each of them, which L was quick to swipe from Light’s plate. He didn’t get away with it as easily with Misa, though; she put up quite a fight.

“Hey! That’s mine!” She whined when she caught him scarfing it down.

“You don’t even like things with sugar,” Light had been stupid enough to remind, leading her to turn on him.

“They were sugar free! That’s why I was going to eat it!”

At her words, L made a great show of scrunching up his face in disgust. “I can tell. Please tell Nori that I need more sugar in my diet if I want to fully recover; she was quite unwilling this afternoon to give me any kind of desert. I’m afraid that if I don’t get more sugar soon there may be severe consequences on my body.”

Misa giggled, “L, you’re so cute!” Though from what Light could tell, L was being completely serious.

With the presence of L, the atmosphere became much more relaxed, and Light found it much easier to make conversation, though there wasn’t much to talk about. All he had ever talked about with Misa was the case (and the occasional celebrity she felt like telling him about), and he just... Didn’t know L. Still, Light was a natural born people person, and managed to keep talking. He found he enjoyed it too, which was odd considering the two people he was with.

First there was L, who, at first impression seemed bizarre and weird, kept surprising Light with his tendency to make insightful, if often awkward, comments. And Misa - Misa was the embodiment of everything he hated in a person, yet, even as she wiggled herself between L and Light and insisted on being far too touchy, he felt an unwilling fondness for her cheeriness and animated attitude.

It was probably Stockholm syndrome, he told himself.

“Ooh!” Misa exclaimed some time later, interrupting his and L’s hushed conversation about Kira’s ethics. This especially annoyed him, because Misa was the detective of the three of them. She of all people should be paying attention to this conversation, shouldn’t she? Maybe, though, she couldn’t afford to consider whether Kira was right or wrong. It was her job to catch him, not necessarily debate his ethics.

“L, Light, come on!” She urged. “I have something to show L!”

She pulled Light by the chain and ushered L over, towards the bedroom, Light noticed. They progressed past the doorway and through the room, until Misa stopped them at another door. Ah - her closet.

“I have some dresses I wanted to show L - since you’re into all that,” Misa remarked. “Have I told you that I’m a big fan? I think I have a magazine you’re featured in somewhere around here.”

She went to the very back of the closet, where, slightly separated from the rest of the clothes hung a few garments that she clearly meant to give to L. Upon presentation, though, L merely shook his head.

“No thank you.”

“Huh?”

“I am not, ‘Into all that,’ as you so call it,” L explained dismissively. “Anything you may see me in while modeling is reserved strictly for work.”

“But-!” Misa protested, shaking a pair of fishnet stockings at L. “You would look so cute in these!”

L’s eyes flicked over to them for a second before resolutely snapping back to look Misa in the eyes. “Your generosity is greatly appreciated, Misa. But you would be far better off giving these to someone who would wear them.”

Misa sighed, looking forlornly at one of the dresses she had grabbed, before a grin spread across her face. “Oh, I see. You just don’t want to try them on in front of Light because it’s too embarrassing. Isn’t that right?”

L shook his head, though a light blush had spread across his cheeks. “Misa, if you want to see me in... That kind of attire, you know you can easily find it.”

“If you say so,” Misa chuckled. Then, in a sneaky whisper (though Light could still hear), “I can have Nori bring them to your room, If you want.”

L blinked, opened his mouth, and closed it. He didn’t say no.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wasn't too happy with this chapter... like I mentioned, I'm doing NaNoWriMo, so I'm pressed to write a lot in a short amount of time, so while I'm making a lot of progress length-wise, quality-wise, I'm not doing so great. I'm always receptive to feedback, be it good or bad, so please review!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my favorite chapter so far, hehe...

That night, Misa had a disturbing dream of L in lingerie. Well, not exactly - at first, it had been her wearing the lacy panties and bra and garter belt. And it had been more than just lingerie, of course; she was wearing a frilly black dress as well, as was usual for her, but on some, hazy, incomprehensible level, she knew what she would find were she to take it off.

She was on her back, with L above her, sitting between her spread legs and exploring her body in a curious, almost child-like way. They spoke, she was sure, but what they said didn’t matter to her - it was what they were doing that made the dream so precious.

L ran his hands down her body, almost uncertain in the way he lifted up her skirt and traced the top of her underwear with his middle finger, drawing light sighs from her. Soon after he went on to unzip her dress, letting it flair open and invite his gaze in. Her belly trembled as he used his mouth to tease his way up to her breasts, which he seemed to be espeacially drawn to. Misa was vaguely annoyed, as she had never taken a liking to nipple play, but L seemed content to move on quickly after his curiosity was sated by way of gently squeezing them between his dainty hands. Besides, in her unconcious state, Misa couldn’t bother to be unhappy, not while something as miraculous as this was happening.

The urge to flip the two of them over and take control flitted through Misa’s mind occasionally, espeacially at times when L would hesitated, like when he had been about to reach under her underwear or unhook her bra. It passed quickly, more often than not. For now she would cope with sitting back and letting L give her pleasure. Her time would come.

After a time they had somehow transitioned from him lightly rubbing at her clit to slipping a finger inside, and then another, and then in a blury blury change of positions that she couldn’t quite recall the mechanics of upon waking up, he had his mouth on her, lapping up the wetness he found there and spending just the right amount of time on her clit to draw a series of gentle sighs from her, yet not bringing her to the point where it was too much, too intense. Later, she reflected, anything more surely would have woken her up.

It was at that moment that Misa realized that L was still clothed in his dirty shirt and jeans, which she disliked very much. In a hazy and, at the time, completely reasonable progression of events, the two of them found that it was not, in fact, Misa clad in lace, but L, lying beneath her nearly naked save for the undergarments and, she noted smugly, the decorative stockings that he had refused to accepte earlier that day.

She skirted down the bed to examine one of L’s slender legs, covered in cloth as they were. Special attention was paid to the removal of the garment; Misa made sure that, with the way she rolled them up, the tips of her fingers never left L’s skin for more than a second. The feeling drew from him a moan, low and rich, at the feel of her hands on his skin. In her dream, L’s legs were long, smooth and hairless, and wrapped around her waist as though they had always been meant to be there.

She began exploring L’s chest with her soft hands, mapping out every curve and protrusion and abnormalty. L shuddered when she began lapping at his nipples, but they were impossible to ignore with the way they stuck out as dark splotches on the white canvas of L’s chest. As her touches became more calculated and specific, L let out a sound that was positively a wail, and she decided that, with one last set of goodbye pinches, L’s nipples had been given enough attention.

Her gaze inevitably fell down to where their crotches met and L had been unsubtly rubbing against her for the past few minutes. The action had gotten her quite worked up, she realized, but more importantly, L was hard and desperate, and only she had the power to give him release.

The head of L’s manhood poked out from the top of the panties, unable to contain him in his aroused state. Misa experimentally grinded against him. L bucked.

Suddenly she could wait no further, and perhaps subconciously knowing that she would wake up soon, she tore away the scrap of cloth that separated her from L and moved to perch herself above L’s cock...

With the feeling of the blunt organ pressing against her she was pushed into wakefulness, confused and aroused and drenched in sweat.

Misa looked over at Light, still a bit disoriented, and eyed the lumpy pile of clothes she had planned on giving L laying at the foot of the bed. At the top of them sat a pair of heeled boots, and Misa tried to recall if L had been wearing them in her dream. She didn't think he had been, but imagined it anyway for her enjoyment while recalling the dream.

Light was asleep still. He wasn't a light sleeper, as she recalled.

Under the bed, she knew, she would find a stack of her favorite magazines, one of which featured a photo of L that she rather admired.

Dare she…? Already she was creeping a hand down to trace under her pajama bottoms, barely brushing against the sparse hair that grew there. (The case had taken up so much of her time; she hadn't had a chance to take care of her normal self care routines.) And Light was still asleep - she could do it under the covers, he would never find out - her thoughts were a blur as she reached over and shuffled under the bed until she felt a magazine who's pages were more frayed than any of the others and pinched it between her thumb and forefinger.

The rustling of the pages was startlingly loud in the quiet room.

The light coming in through the window was barely enough to let her see the magazine. Would it be too dangerous to turn on the bedside lamp?

She decided to risk it.

The cover featured L. It was weird, now that she knew L in person, to look at this perfected, airbrushed version of him. L was already lovely, with clear, smooth skin and shocking dark eyes, and while Misa had admired this picture and many others of him before, she found that this paper version of him just couldn't compare to the real thing.

L was laying on his back on, from what Misa could tell, a white sheet, though it was hard to tell with the obnoxious text that surrounded him, quoting, “Up and coming supermodel “L” reveals the secrets to his beautiful skin!” And other eye catching slogans. It was quite distracting.

Misa turned over to one of the many folded pages in that specific magazine.

This picture was similar to the one shown on the cover, though certainly not appropriate to put on the cover.

L was wearing, most notably, a pair of black lacy panties, and Misa was reminded of the ones in her dream. One leg was hiked up and pushed to the side, while the other was slightly bent and also spread. The positioning was arranged to give the most optimal view of L's crotch, the little scrap of lace barely enough to hold him in. In fact, from the way and direction it bulged, Misa was quite sure that it was only due to photoshop that his penis wasn't visibly peeking out 

Misa turned onto her stomach and let her hand creep under the covers.

The bulging of the fabric wasn't because L was particularly big, she mused. The contraption simply wasn't meant to accommodate such a thing. In fact, upon closer inspection, she realized that L was quite… small.

Strangely enough, the thought sent a jolt of heat through her.

She thought that maybe she should be concerned, because normally, in terms of penis size, the general idea was “the bigger the better.” But she disregarded that thought in favor of cooking up a fantasy of L sitting in her lap, back pressed to her chest, wearing the lingerie from her dream. The underwear was pulled down to expose his cock, which fitted so perfectly in her hand that she couldn't help but wrap a fist around it and  _ squeeze. _ He made a fantastic sounding whine at that, she imagined.

She let the hand that wasn't busy on L's cock trace up his chest, drawing little patterns with the tip of her finger that left L shuddering and seemed to make his cock jump under her hand. She imagined that the sides of his torso would be extra sensitive, just like her own body, and scratched at them slightly with her long, manicured fingernails. L let out a delicious yowl, though it didn’t compare to the noise he made when she reached up to twist a nipple at the same time that she tightened her grip on his organ and pumped.

In real life, Misa carresed her clit with one finger. The simple move was enough to make her bury her head in the pillow, before forcing herself back up so she could continue examening the magazine.

Misa had seen Light’s penis before - after all, they had showered together. It was quite large, she thought, not that she had spent much time staring. She didn’t much like the though of something like that inside of her, but L - L was small enough for someone like her. She stared intently at the picture again, rubbing herself under the covers, and resumed her fantasy, which she realized revolved around her domination of L, her having him under her power, wrapped in her arms...

Except now when she closed her eyes, she found that it wasn’t her lap L was sitting in now, but Light’s, while she sat perched on L’s thighs. She pressed closer to L and rolled her hips to clash their genitals together.

Now, facing him, she could see L’s face, which was stained a dark red; it was a big contrast from the brief glimse of his blush she had caught once before.

Misa opened her eyes and looked up at the magazine for reference. She was finding it hard to imagine what L might look like in this situation as compared to his normal stoical self. In the picture, L’s eyebags had been artfully airbrused over, but his eyes, half closed in mock arousal as they were, were still stunning and dark against his pail skin. His hair fanned around him like a halo, looking apropriately messy for the mid-coital effect the photographers were apparently going for, but still far nicer than he ever wore it normally.

His face took on a similar expression in her fantasy, lips parting to let out a series of huffs and whines as Light wiggled a finger under the band of his panties to tease his enterance, and Misa took the opportunity to pull him up by the hair and claim his unresisting lips.

Misa paused in the rubbing of her clit to slip a finger inside.

She suddenly realized how close she was to release. Her slow teasing of herself had subtly worked her up to the edge, and it would only take a few more minutes for her to orgasm if she sped things up.

Instead, she forced her finger to stop its gentle thrusting. She wanted this to last; wanted it to be good.

Misa imagined that L would taste sweet, from all the sugar he ate. He espeacially liked strawberries, and she felt that she could almost taste him on her lips in real life. She was suddenly struck with the urge to taste Light as well, who was all too close for comfort, sleeping only a few inches away from her fretful ministrations.

What would happen if she were to kiss him though? Would he wake up, in a Sleeping Beauty-esque fashion, gazing up at her with doe eyes? More likely, though, he would just push her away and berate her that, “I have a boyfriend!”

The boyfriend in question of whom she was currently masturbating to the thought of.

Fantasy-Light was available, though, and so she settled for lifting herself onto her knees and leaning over L’s shoulder to carress Light’s face, and this Light was perfectly willing to give in to her whims and meet her for a kiss, even as, below them, he was fingering L with two digits and L was squirming and whimpering in their absense.

Misa slid the hand that had been holding the magazine under the covers to grab one hip and mimic the feeling of L desperately grasping at her body for something to hang on to as he came undone. Imagining the face he might make, and the feeling of his small cock nestled in her hand convulsing and releasing onto the both of them caused her to speed up the movements of her hand, pulling the finger out of her and working her clit vigorously.

In a crashing wave of sensation, her mind went blank and she fell forward, face hitting the magazine laying on her pillow as she lost the strength to hold herself up. She ground into her hand, every press against her clit sending a pulse through her that had her biting the pillow and squeezing her eyes closed. Her cunt seemed to be convulsing, clenching down, looking for something to cling to, and she suddenly wished she hadn’t stopped fingering herself before orgasm. It was too late now though, for if she were to move her fingers from where they were massaging her clit she would surely die.

Slowly, the waves began to subside in intensity and she was gently let down from her high to sprawl out across her side of the bed in post-orgasm bliss. The plasticky pages of the magazine stuck to her cheek, and she had the sense to throw it under the bed before beginning to drift off. Beside her, Light breathed deep and even in sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback? I always love to hear what people think of my work! (Also I'm needy and I want attention...)


	7. Chapter 7

The morning dawned bright and early, and Light relished the feeling of the sun on his skin. Even after his three days of freedom, he was still very aware of every luxury he had access to, as compared to during his confinement. Misa was still sound asleep, he noticed, face down with her head barely tilted to the side to give her room to breath around the pillow. On the other side, barely visible under the mountain of blankets she had stolen during the night, there was an open magazine hanging hallway off the mattress.

Light tutted and shook his head. Had she stayed up all night looking at that? He had never understood what could be so interesting about the advertisements for different types of perfume and articles about celebrity outfits, yet girls seemed to like them.

Oh-so-carefully, Light leaned over to swipe the thin book from the edge of the bed, and was astonished at what he saw.

On the cover there was a picture of L - but of course, he reasoned; L was a model, after all. There was nothing weird about finding him in a magazine. The way he was sprawled out was deliberately erotic, though, and why Misa would be reading something so obviously aimed towards men baffled him. L wore unbuttoned leather shorts and an impossibly figure-hugging frilly corset - why, that was the outfit he had been wearing when he and Light had first met!

The outfit had been hot then, Light recalled, but this was on an entirely new level of suggestiveness; L hadn’t come to Light’s house with his legs open, with those bedroom eyes, with that arched back-

Light flipped to the page that it had been opened to, mortified at the direction of his thoughts. He was too busy trying to distract himself to notice what was on the page, nor that Misa was beginning to stir into wakefulness.

She surprised him when she spoke into his ear, suddenly too close for comfort. “You’re so lucky, Light.”

Light jumped, looking down at her for the first time, then down at the magazine, and realized just who it pictured. His eyes flew open in shock.

“Misa, why were you looking at L?” Light scolded.

“Because he’s gorgeous, of course,” Misa sighed. “So are you. You’re both just so... Good together.”

Light scowled in annoyance at her antics. “Still, I don’t appreciate you... Please refrain from looking at these kinds of pictures while we’re chained together.”

Misa giggled. “Someone’s jealous...” She murmured.

Light didn’t response, instead furrowing his eyebrows. Jealous? He wasn’t - he barely even knew L! He wasn’t jealous!

“Come on. Let’s get ready,” Misa prompted.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

Showering was still a pretty awkward affair, though they were getting used to it. Light was nearly an adult, and told himself that he could handle himself so, though it was hard not to be squeamish when Misa was clearly ogling him. Still, shower time had so far passed without incident. This time went even smoother than usual with the shower in their bathroom, which was much bigger than the one in the hotel had been. Misa had built the headquarters with this situation in mind, it seemed.

Light frowned when he saw a pink and a white scrub on the shelf; it seemed his and L’s had gotten mixed up with the move. It wasn’t a big deal he knew, and in fact had suspected that L would want the blue one anyway. After all, that had been the reason he had taken it, to see if he could get a reaction out of L. It hadn’t succeeded.

Their morning ritual was rushed today. Light skipped flossing and clipping his nails, while Misa almost forgot to put on makeup. It would be the first day of actual work since Light had been released, and there was a sense of mixed anticipation and nervousness between them. When they left the bathroom, though the pair of them was still a stunning image, they were definitely not at their best.

The main investigation room, which Light had seen only once the day before, was sparse and empty, even with the rest of the task force present. A wall of computers sat along one wall, with the team clustered in that area. Soichiro’s face lit up when he saw Light.

“Light. I’m sorry we didn’t see each other yesterday, but Misa gave us the day off, and it’s been a while since I’ve been able to spend time with the family...”

Light nodded. “I understand, dad. Have you guys made any progress with the case?”

The older Yagami shook his head, but that was the extent or their interaction, as Misa dispersed the cluster of men with a wave of her hand. “Go to your desks!” she urged. “This is where Light and I need to sit!”

The group all separated and settled along the long table in front of the array of screens. Misa walked over to the end of it to address them, with Light hanging to the side.

“So, today I want you work on filing and categorizing the victims of the new killings-”

“The new killings?” Light interrupted sharply.

Everyone in the room turned to look at Light, who in turn stared pointedly at Misa.

Finally Matsuda broke the silence. “Didn’t Takada tell you Light? The killings started up again a long time ago. She was just keeping it from you to-”

Light held up a hand to stop him. “That’s enough. I’ll talk about this with her later - I wouldn’t want to interrupt your working time.”

Light was still staring at Misa, who shrugged, and turned back to face the rest of the  team to continue giving out directions.

Light was distracted from his current hatred of Misa by L, who chose that opportunity to creep down the stairs and pull up a chair next to Light’s, as though he belonged there on the investigation. He was so quiet, Light doubted the rest of the task force (aside from Misa, who had met L’s eyes, nodded, then oddly enough, blushed) had even noticed him.

“You know, I’m pretty sure this is classified information,” Light commented, even as he slide a stack of papers in L’s direction.

“I’m trustworthy,” L said blandly. “Besides. I can’t return to work until I have Watari back, so I might as well help out with this.”

“What about Matsuda?”

“I want Watari.”

“Hmm...”

The work Misa assigned him was far less interesting than light had hoped. Of course, with no new developments in the case, he knew he couldn’t expect to have a whole lot of interesting puzzles to solve, but he had still had high hopes for the implications of joining the team full time.

Things were more interesting with Misa and L, though, than they would have been alone. Misa took great joy in pointing out L’s oddities, and L didn’t seem to mind too much, even exaggerating them for her amusement. L was also crazy efficient, speeding through documents like they were nothing, and the two of them soon fell into an unspoken contest to see who could make work faster.

It wasn’t until half the pile of papers had disappeared into the “finished” pile that the rest of the task force seemed to notice L’s presence.

“Takada - what’s L doing here?” Aizawa asked crossly, the first to notice.

Misa stared blankly at him. “Helping, obviously,” she finally said, as though it was obvious (it was, Light reckoned).

The man scrutinized L, who, busy dropping sugar cubes in his mouth, appeared not to notice, though Light was quite sure he did.

“I highly doubt that,” Aizawa finally muttered. Light bristled, but nobody else, having looked up at some point during the interaction, made any comment, so he returned to his work without any confrontation, though he was sure at least Misa and L could see his slight scowl.

It was almost lunch when Misa decided, “I’m bored,” and pulled Light up from his chair by the chain. “Come on Light, let’s go.”

“What? Misa, we have work to do!” Light protested.

One of the task force members - Mogi, he thought, chimed in. “Yeah, Takada, you can’t just leave because you’re bored. This is part of work.”

Misa shrugged. “Well, I have other things I need to take care of, anyway. L, you come too.”

L looked up at them, as though unaware of what had been going on, but got up and followed without complaint into the elevator.

“So what is it you have to do?” Light asked as they made their way up to the 19th floor - the floor their rooms were located, he realized.

Misa giggled. “I have a surprise for L.”

“It’s not those clothes you were trying to make him take yesterday, were they?” Light sighed. To his surprise, Misa blushed. ‘Could it be that she’s finally learned to be embarrassed about her immature behavior?’ He thought sarcastically. But Misa shook her head.

“Nope! It’s better than that!”

When the elevator’s doors opened, Misa dragged the two of them down the hall with a bounce in her step, before stopping in front of L’s door and knocking.

Light was about to ask who was in there, before the door swung open to reveal... Nori. Oh. But then she stepped aside, an he saw a very old man standing behind her.

“Watari!” L gasped, and looked as though he was going to run up to hug him, before apparently rethinking the action.

“Hello, L,” the man greeted warmly, though with a hint of confusion. As of yet, Light had gathered that L’s manager had been arrested so that he wouldn’t be able to interfere with L’s incarceration; it made sense that he wouldn’t completely understand what was going on. “And I see you’re with your-” Watarit’s smile tightened a bit- “boyfriend. This is quite unusual. Would you care to explain what was going on?” He asked, and while the man was specifically eyeing the chain between Light and Misa, Light suspected that he had meant his question to be more broad than that.

L opened his mouth to speak, then stopped, apparently unsure how to begin. Finally, he said, bluntly, “Light and I are under suspicion for being the first and second Kira.”

“Oh.”

“MisaMisa suspects Light more than me, so she’s had her employee chain herself to him to keep an eye on him.”

“I see.”

“And you were arrested as an excuse for Misa to put me into confinement. I’d assume that we’ll be living together in this apartment, as it has two bedrooms.”

“Yep!” Misa confirmed.

“Okay.”

Watari was taking this all rather well, Light noticed. The man turned to him and held out a hand, and Light of course promptly shook it.

“It’s nice to meet you, Light. L has told me about you.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well,” Light replied.

He wondered what kind of relationship the two shared; after all, he was pretty sure it was uncommon for a model and manager to discuss their personal life, and L had seemed quite distressed upon finding out that Watari had been arrested. Were they perhaps related? But then, L had mentioned growing up in an orphanage; that wouldn’t make much sense. He resolved to ask later.

Misa beamed up at the two of them, as if expecting some big reward for her achievement, and, to Light’s surprise, L seemed willing to give it to her. He turned to her and wrapped his arms around her in a snug hug. Misa’s body went stiff as a board, and her cheeks colored crimson. How silly; she was so physical with everyone else but couldn’t receive a hug without being embarrassed?

Something about that thought bothered him, but he was unable to pinpoint it with everything going on around him.

“Thank you Misa,” L muttered into her shoulder.

“Um - you’re welcome,” Misa stuttered.

Light looked on with a curious sense of amusement. From the day Misa met him, on his and Light’s date, she had taken a liking to L, despite the fact that L was the boyfriend of Light, who anyone could tell she was a bit enamored with. It was weird and not at all what one would expect, but, Light had to admit, somewhat cute.

Watari, he noticed, seemed to think so too. Their gazes met for a brief second during Misa and L’s exchange, and despite his standoffish demeanor earlier, Light caught a sparkle of amusement in the man’s eye. It quickly dissolved into professionalism though, when the two broke apart.

“Well, it’s nice to see you haven’t replaced me,” he said. “Would you like to begin planning out your work schedule now that you have a manager back? Or were you in the middle of something?”

L eagerly nodded to Watari’s suggestion, leaving Light, Misa, and Nori outside with barely a wave goodbye. Light had wanted to growl that, yes, he had been in the middle of something - work, and that L was good at it and they needed him, but refrained. L had an actual career, he had to remind himself, and he hadn’t seen his manager in two months. He had the right to want to spend time with him.

Misa tugged on the chain. “Come on, Light,” she beckoned. “We have work to do.”

L’s absence was apparent when they got back; their progress was nearly cut in half without him. Light had to resist the urge to smirk in Aizawa’s direction when the man stopped working to gaze at the large pile of unfinished paperwork in confusion. Still, Light was a fast worker, and they had nearly finished filing everything by the time the team members started trickling out of the building.

When everyone was gone, Misa grabbed Light’s had to stop him from taking another document.

“What? Are we done?” He asked. He had been under the impression that Misa would have him working well into the night.

Misa shook her head. “No, but I figured you looked pretty bored.” Without further explanation, she pushed aside the pile of papers and pulled something up on the big screen in front of them. When she pulled back, he saw that there was a collection of graphs and charts.

“Of course, these are incomplete,” Misa said. “We haven’t completed putting the information on all the victims in the computer yet, but this is what we have so far.”

“Oh?”

“I though we could try and find some patterns,” Misa said with a hopeful smile.

Light couldn’t help but to smile as well, and inched closer (too see the screen better, of course). “Yeah - that would be nice.”   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the late update! I don't really have an excuse but I'm sorry! Here, take an embarrassed Misa and some sappy teen Light/Misa romance as an apology.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about the wait! I'm back, and updates should go back to normal! Whoopsie!

 L awoke the next morning feeling much better than he had in some time. Now that Watari was back, he felt much more at ease, and the empty apartment he was given felt much more homely.

Of course, the return of Watari meant going back to work as well - that is, going back to his work, as opposed to helping Light and Misa as he had the day before. The paperwork had been boring, of course; simply filing away the names and details of Kira victims, but the sense of companionship he got from working with Light and Misa was satisfying and... nice.

When he had first given up on detective work, Watari had been quite surprised at his new choice of career, but, as his favorite student, the old man had supported him. He had also strictly enforced L’s participation in this job; he was determined that, whatever L chose to do with his life, he would excel, whether it be detective work, modeling, or even being a cashier in a supermarket. L was destined for success, and Watari was determined that his protege reach it.

Watari’s enthusiasm meant that L would be working the very next day that he returned. L didn’t know how he had managed to get it scheduled on such a short notice, but last night L had been informed that he had a photo shoot for a well known clothes designer in the morning.

“Good, you’re awake,” was the only wakeup call L was given in the morning before Watari slipped out of his bedroom, probably to prepare breakfast. L wasn’t sure how he had survived without him these past few days - but then, Nori had been an... adequate substitute. Still, he thought, eating the first slice of chocolate cake he had had in days, nothing could compare to Watari’s care.

He didn’t have much time to savor his cake before he was rushed out the door, and nearly missed Light and Misa in the investigation room; as it was, he hardly had time to wave goodbye to the two of them and grab Matsuda, who was required to come with whenever one of them left the building.

Before he knew it, he was standing in the lobby of a company headquarters building, shaking the hand of the receptionist who was to bring him to the room he was going to be working in.

“It’s nice to meet you...”

“Ryuga.”

“Yes - It’s nice to meet you Ryuga. We look forward to working with you,” she said, leading him out of the elevator and down a hallway. “Our photographer well meet you here in a few moments. Excuse me, I need to get back to my desk.”

L was left in a large studio, where he could see a few sets set up and some cameras and equipment in one corner. The three of them sat themselves down on an old couch near the door, waiting for the photographer.

He felt a light tap on his shoulder, and turned over to Watari.

“Here,” Watari said, brandishing a magazine. “So you can see the type of clothes this designer makes.”

L gratefully accepted it, and flipped to a random page. He noted with relief that the models presented didn’t seem too lascivious; the most revealing outfit he was a woman with her cotton sweater open to reveal parts of her chest. L wasn’t in the mood to spend hours wearing next to nothing in a cold studio today.

The door to the room opened with a gentle squeak. “Hello?” Someone called out. “Is anyone here?”

“Yes,” L replied, and a short man peered around the doorway. “I’m L, your model.”

The man’s face split into a grin. “Oh good - I didn’t think you were here yet. Let’s get to work.”

The man made haste in pulling out a set of lights toward one of the sets - a modern red couch that contrasted with the black background and the white lamp hanging above. “First,” he panted, “We want you to show off a new dress we’ve designed, which I think will go excellently with this couch...”

 

* * *

 

 

When they finished, L had worn a total of nine outfits, each with their own different backgrounds for the pictures. It had been exhausting. On the plus side, though, he had a souvenir: His photographer had forgotten to ask for the last sweater he had worn back, assuming it had been the same white shirt he had come there with.

“Uh, you know, that’s stealing. Technically. As a policeman I don’t think I can let you...” Matsuda stammered.

“I don’t care,” L snapped, busy admiring the soft fabric the garment was made of. It would make a fine addition to his collection of stolen white sweaters.

 

* * *

 

 

“Oh, L, you’re back! How was it?” Misa asked cheerfully once he got past the security measures onto the main floor.

L shrugged. “It was nice. Thank you for asking.”

“Do you want to help us? We’re done with all the boring stuff; now Light and I are looking for patterns.”

L bit his lip. He hadn’t been planning on helping, but if they wanted him... “Yes, that sounds nice,” he decided. He went to take a seat next to Light, and looked up just in time to see Watari looking on in amusement, before waving to L.

“I’ll be in our room,” Watari said.

Light turned to look at him, not saying anything but apparently deep in thought. Finally, he spoke: “Is that a new sweater?”

L smiled.

This part was at first, much more satisfying than filing papers had been, but soon, after the trio discovered that there really was no obvious pattern, they fell into boredom again. Occasionally, one of them, or even one of the other policemen, would think they had something and beckon the rest of the team over, but it had been a fluke each time. Mogi was the only one preoccupied, as he had voulunteered to finish up the paperwork that nobody wanted to do. He was very helpful.

L looked over at Light, observing. Over Light’s shoulder, Misa appeared to be doing the same. Light surely noticed their staring, but kept his eyes focused resolutely at the screen in front of him, the facade of hard work radiating off of him.

Light was a very neat person; his cream colored shirt lacked the coffee stains that always seemed to collect on L’s, and his desk space was clear, unlike Misa’s, with the multitude of glitter pens and colorful office supplies she kept with her, or L’s, which was littered with candy wrappers. To be fair to Misa, whenever Light needed a pen or anything else, he had to borrow from her, as he lacked his own, and he had surely snuck a few candies from L’s pile. The price of a perfectly clean desk was steep.

Light typed something very deliberately on the screen - “Stop staring at me.”

“Oh, but Light, L’s your boyfriend!” Misa whined. “Don’t you want him to stare at you?” L couldn’t tell whether she was being serious or joking, but he was leaning towards joking, and risked letting out a small laugh.

The two of them turned to look at him.

“Wow,” Misa finally giggled. “Your laugh is cute. I though it would be all ugly, like your voice.”

L glared at her at full force. His voice was attractive, and they all knew it.

“Maybe we should get back to work,” Light said after a moment.

“I doubt we’ll find anything of value doing this.”

“Well, do you have a better idea?”

L didn’t, but instead of admitting defeat, ha said, ‘Maybe we should do more research. Find victims we might have missed.”

Begrudgingly, the other two (and the rest of the task force) agreed. They spent the rest of the work day hunched over computers to find Kira victims that their sources might have missed, though they all knew it was likely not going to lead to anything.

L couldn’t have been happier when the rest of the team left for home later. At Wammy’s, he had found solving cases to be interesting and fun, but this... This was just depressing. They couldn’t seem to find anything. What was worse, L was pretty sure that if he could bring himself to consider that he or Light might have been Kira, he could think of something to aid the case, but he simply couldn’t throw himself, or Light, under the bus like that.

Besides, that kind of thinking was for Misa, the detective, to do.

Misa had no way of knowing everything, though, like the time L had first met Light and given him a notebook for no apparent reason. Or even before that, in Aayoma, seeing Light for the first time and somehow knowing his name, who he was... that he had to meet him.

Misa knew that that was where L had first seen him, but she simply wouldn’t be able to comprehend the realization that Light was special, the absolute _need_ for him-

Maybe that was something else.

L stood up abruptly. “I’m going to my room.”

“Oh?”

“I have plans I have to make with Watari.”

“Okay,” Misa said carefully, clearly thrown off by L’s behavior.

L strode out of the elevator as soon as it reached his floor and made a beeline for his door. Watari was sitting in the living room.

“Oh, good evening L. I expected you to be down there all night with Light and Misa.”

L shrugged. “Maybe later. I just need to...”

He made his way over to the bathroom, where he knew from his search of the apartment upon arrival that Misa had gifted him a standard bottle of suppressants.

“I thought you didn’t use those,” Watari remarked while L was washing one down with water, having followed him in concern.

L wiped a bead of water off his chin. “No, not normally. But I’m still a bit sore from confinement; I don’t want to go into heat like this.”

“... Sore?”

“Well, yes. Misa had me in the same position for fifty days; I’m still having a bit of trouble. She’s been mixing suppressants into my food, but since you cooked for me last night, I didn’t think to take them.” L put the bottle back on the shelf and closed the cabinet door. “I’m glad I caught that. It was a close call.”

Watari’s eyes had turned cold. “I was aware that you were in confinement, but not that you had been treated so poorly.”

“Yes, well, the ends justify the means, I’m sure. There was quite a lot of evidence stacked up against Light and I,” he explained uneasily. Though he could understand Misa’s reasons for his confinement, he preferred not to think about it too much.

Watari didn’t look settled in the slightest, but didn’t press on when L said, “Drop it, Watari.”

They spent the rest of the day planning the month’s schedule. Getting back to work was tricky; most photographers required at least a month’s notice before they would begin negotiating contracts, but Watari managed to get him scheduled with an artist who needed a model for their photo shoot, along with a surprise: before his confinement, Watari had been working on securing him the lead part in a long anticipated teen romance movie, which was sure to get him lots of publicity. Though the casting director had been a bit thrown off by the sudden stop in communications, he was still willing to consider L for the part.

It was somewhat exciting, L supposed.

Afterwards, L let his thoughts drift to Light and Misa, who were probably still downstairs working on the case. Though he was bored with it himself, he found he almost envied them. They, at least, got to be unquestionably involved... together. Tomorrow, while he would be posing in front of a camera, they would be working on the Kira case, which seemed to him to be a much better use of time.

He spent the rest of the night in self pity; regretful that he had given up on such a promising dream such as his, and by the end of the night, he had reached a conclusion: he was going to catch Kira himself.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. I didn't choose the bad internet life, the bad internet life chose me ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

 

“I wonder why L left?” Misa asked loudly, and, in Light’s opinion, cluelessly. Of course, she was a beta; she couldn’t have known how L’s scent was pervading the room, even further than it normally did, so that even Light, taking the proper amount of scent blockers that common decorum mandated, could hardly think of anything else. Still, she was a detective; she was supposed to notice things, like how Light and Aizawa (and possibly Mogi? It was generally rude to ask) were having a hard time focusing and taking periodic glances in L’s direction, or even the way L had been so obviously leaning towards Light in his chair without even seeming to be conscious of it.

Yes, it was so obvious, even, Light was sure, to the betas in the room, that L was going into heat, that Light wondered how Misa had ever earned the title of world’s greatest detective.

“Um-”

“I mean, he’s so brazen about it usually, I can’t see why he would feel the need to leave. Not that I’m complaining,” She continued, not noticing the grimaces of discomfort she was getting from the rest of the task force. “It would be quite distracting.

Oh. So, she had indeed known what was going on, and simply didn’t understand common rules of etiquette that dictated that omegas in heat didn’t just walk around like normal. It was a private event, Light thought with disdain.

“We should get back to work, Misa,” Light said curtly.

The team grumbled their agreements, and returned to their computer screens.

“We should check on him,” Misa mused some time later.

Light sighed. “Maybe tomorrow,” he said. “I’m tired now, and I’m sure he wants to be alone right now. Could we go to bed?”

The team had left, so Misa shrugged and pushed her chair back from the desk. “If you want. We can get up bright and early tomorrow to check on L, okay?”

Despite himself, Light felt his lips quirk up into a smile, which remained plastered to his face until they got into bed and Misa tried to cuddle up to him.

“You know Light... sometimes I’m really jealous of L,” she admitted, continuing to cling to him despite how stiff he had gone. “Do you like him?”

“I’m dating him, Misa.”

“I know,” she sighed. “But you know... sometimes I really want to be in your place, too. I wasn’t joking when I said you were cute together.”

Light shifted uncomfortably. The situation was weird and unfamiliar, but not completely unwelcomed. Even as he tried to think of a way to let Misa down gently, to comfort her, he admired Misa, even if she did get annoying.

“I think L likes you a lot, too,” Light blurted out, thinking of how the omega seemed to gravitate towards not only Light, but Misa as well.

Misa beamed up at her. “That’s really nice of you to say, Light.”

Misa made good on her promise that they would be up bright and early the next morning, and by seven in the morning she was marching him over to L’s apartment.

“I doubt he really wants visitors right now...” Light protested, but Misa paid him no mind and knocked sharply on L’s door. A few minutes passed before and elderly man - Watari - opened the door.

“Oh - hello, Light. Misa. Would you like to come in?”

“Yes please!” Misa said, before shoving past him. Light shot him an apologetic smile over his shoulder. There was a couch in the sitting area facing away from the doorway, over which Light could see the top of L’s hair. But something wasn’t quite right - for one, there was no scent to indicate that L was in heat. Like always, of course, Light was shocked by his strong scent, but that was normal for L, and he knew it would be even more intense were he in heat - but there was just the norm. Added to the fact that L was out in the open living room, rather than in bed (though Light wouldn’t put it past him to try and work while in such a state), and that Watari had had no qualms about letting them in, Light realized that he and Misa had made a big mistake.

Unable to smell L’s lack of strong scent, Misa was slower on the uptake and had yet to realize their misunderstanding. Light tried to shake his head at her to indicate that she shouldn’t do anything, but couldn’t catch her eye, and she bounded forward to greet L, dragging an embarrassed Light behind.

“L!”

“Good morning, Misa. It’s quite early for the two of you to be up; you both rather value your sleep, yes?”

“Well, it’s worth it if we get to visit you!” Misa chimed.

L blinked. “Well, that’s… quite sweet. I appreciate it.”

Light cringed. Misa was going to embarrass them both.

“Have you eaten today? I know it can be easy to forget,” Misa said, as she sat down on one side of L and pulled Light down on the other.

L went silent for a moment. “Misa… you do realize I’m not in heat, right?”

“What?” Misa gasped. “But I stopped sneaking suppressants into your food, and last night you went all fidgety before leaving and Light was all hot and bothered - tell him Light! You can smell him, right?”

“No, Misa. He’s not in heat right now.”

Misa groaned and flung herself back on the couch. “But we were so sure!”

“What were the two of you planning, coming here under the impression that I was in heat?” L asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Misa gasped again. “Nothing impure! We just wanted to check on you!”

“Uh, yeah,” Light grunted, face red.

“That’s a shame,” L said. “I wouldn’t mind having the two of you around for that. It was such a shame to find out that Light wouldn’t be able to attend to me due to the chain, but I certainly wouldn’t object to Misa being there as well.”

It was Misa’s turn to blush. “Really? That’s so sweet!” Light sputtered in annoyance, before recognizing the emotion he was feeling as jealousy, and quickly waved it off. After all, he barely knew L - could it really even be said that they were dating? There was no place for jealousy in this situation.

“I’ve never had someone to accompany me in heat,” L mused, “So two people could be a bit overwhelming. Still, I’m sure I could handle it,” he said. Light thought he detected a coy lilt to L’s monotonous voice, and was thrilled at the thought that he was learning to detect L’s emotions so aptly, before registering the words spoken.

He cleared his throat. “This is - hardly an appropriate topic for work.”

“But Light, we’re not at work!” Misa said. “Besides, if we don’t talk about it now, when else will we?”

“Misa! You’re not actually considering this, are you?”

“If you’re uncomfortable with the idea, Light, we can drop it,” L said.

“That’s not it at all! But Misa’s not even an alpha! How would - this - even be enjoyable for her?”

“You’d be surprised. Some betas actually find being with an omega in heat to be quite enjoyable.”

“Then it’s a deal!” Misa chimed. “Next time L goes into heat, we’ll be there!” She jumped up to stand next to Light, who had stood up at some point in their conversation in frustration.

“I look forward to it. Unfortunately, I have a photo shoot today, so I will be unable to help with the case.”

“Aw - we get so much more done with you around though!” Misa whined. “Promise you’ll be here tomorrow?”

L smiled a bit, an expression unfamiliar to his face. “Of course.”

Misa cheered, and to Light’s irritation, leaned down to kiss L’s cheek. “Then we’ll see you then!”

“Goodbye, Misa. Goodbye Light.”

Light waved awkwardly, too caught up in his own thoughts to do much more. Had he really just agreed to be with L during his next heat? And have Misa there as well? What would his father think?

“Misa, we can’t tell the task force when we - I mean, you’re not actually serious about this, are you?” He sputtered as soon as they left L’s apartment.

“Of course I am! I wouldn’t have agreed if I wasn’t. Why - jealous?”

“You can’t engage in activities like that with a suspect!” Light said, purposefully sidestepping the issue.

“I don’t have to join in if it makes you uncomfortable. I can just watch.”

“You shouldn’t be there in the first place!”

“I’m sorry Light, but you know I can’t take off these handcuffs,” Misa said.

Light to struggle not to shout, knowing that she was being difficult on purpose. “Neither of us have to be there in the first place,” he corrected.

“But Light! He’s your boyfriend! It would be cruel to deny him. Besides, he wants me there,” she said smugly, before her expression turned kinder. “Just think about it. If it really makes you uncomfortable, we don’t have to. But I know that deep down, you like me,” she added with a playful wink.

Light’s chest tightened. “Okay,” he finally said, and followed her down to the investigation room.

Did it make him uncomfortable? Of course it did; he had never been with an omega in heat before, not to mention that he would be sharing with someone else - the whole situation was unfamiliar. But was he averse to it? If he wasn’t attracted to L, he wouldn’t be dating him. Misa, though… she was pretty. And sweet. And caring. Obviously L was attracted to her, and felt comfortable around her. Light certainly was used to her, after being chained together for several days, and doubted it would be much more awkward with her around. Perhaps she would even make the situation go more smoothly, with how nonchalant she seemed about it.

So no, Light was not averse to it.

And Misa wasn’t averse to it, and neither was L. So what did he have against it?

“Misa,” he hissed, keeping his voice down so that nobody else would hear. “You can’t tell my father or the task force what we’re planning with L.”

“Of course. It’ll all be secret - unless they decide to look at the security footage,” she giggled.

“I’m serious, Misa!”

“Alright, alright. Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to keep it secret.”


	10. Chapter 10

Misa and Light visited L every morning after that day, Light because he had to (though they all knew it was just an act; Light wanted to see his boyfriend just as much as Misa did) and Misa because she could. Misa made no effort to hide how eager she was for L to go into heat, while L seemed to enjoy teasing her by making a show of taking his suppressants right in front of them. Light, too, felt a sense of jitteriness; L seemed to have made it his mission to drive Light insane with lust. When he wasn’t out modeling, L was between Light and Misa, sitting on one of their laps (when the task force wasn’t around), flirting with Light, and eating candy in that (intentionally, Light was sure) provocative way of his.

He was intent to move their relationship along, it seemed.

And though it seemed sudden to Light, he supposed it made sense. It would be silly for Light and Misa to “help” L with his heat while they had barely had any interaction between the three. Someone had to take the initiative.

A week into this strange relationship they had seemingly formed, Misa and Light went to bed early, having made no progress on the case and having no reason to stay up, as L was out.

Light had to admit that Matsuda did an admirable job at his temporary chore; being L and Watari’s chaperone when they left the building required him to be out late at night for L’s modeling and acting, but he never complained (though Light suspected that it was because of Matsuda’s obvious infatuation with L). Light would never be able to keep up such an unstable schedule like that.

“Light, do you mind that L likes me?” Misa asked suddenly as they were getting into pajamas.

“I... I don’t know. I try not to think about it.”

“Because you know... I really don’t mean to butt in on your relationship. But I just... Really like you. Both of you, that is.”

Light remained silent. He didn’t like Misa - or, he didn’t think he did. He wasn’t sure why not; despite everything she had put them through in confinement, he didn’t resent her for that. No, his dislike stemmed from some time before his and L’s confinement. Though for some reason his memories of this time were somewhat blurry, he remembered strongly disliking - no, hating - her from the moment she had introduced herself. The implications of that were frightening.

“I... I understand. It’s a complicated situation. And L likes you too, so...”

“You keep saying that,” Misa said, somewhat sadly. “But you don’t like me, do you?”

“I don’t know, Misa,” Light said shortly. He didn’t want to think about how he felt about Misa - or L. It was too complicated.

Misa looked at him mournfully and tugged them towards the bed. “I just really want this to work out. We could be so happy if you weren’t Kira and you liked me.”

“I’m not Kira,” Light protested, but knew already that it wouldn’t matter. They got under the covers, and Light turned onto his side away from Misa. What she had said - “I really want this to work out” - it nettled him, though he couldn’t figure out why.

“What is ‘this?’” He asked.

“I mean... you don’t agree to let any old friend join you and your boyfriend in heat. There must be something between us, right?”

Her voice started to shake towards the end, and Light felt guilty when all he could say was “Maybe.”

He woke up tired the next day, having slept fitfully. Misa, too, seemed a bit worn out, but perked up when he made the suggestion to visit L, rather than her, as was usual.

L was waiting for them in his apartment with food set out, as had become custom over the past few days. “Good morning, Light, Misa,” he greeted. “You look lovely today,” he told Misa, eyeing the bags under her eyes.

“We stayed up late,” Misa lied. “We thought we had a lead.”

L looked skeptical, but shrugged. “It’s a shame I wasn’t there. Yesterday was quite boring,” he said, sitting between Misa and Light.

Misa made a noncommittal sound, not looking any brighter, even when L pressed a kiss to her cheek. Light felt a stab of guilt; she was more upset than he had originally thought, it seemed. He took the liberty of fixing her and L’s plates: Watari had made just as lavish a breakfast as usual, just more of it to accommodate Light and Misa. Light took care to scoop the sugared strawberries off of Misa’s plate and onto L’s, knowing that she often complained that L’s sugary food was going to make her fat.

“Aw, thank you Light! You’re the best!” Misa cheered upon being handed her food.

Light made himself a plate as well, though he didn’t know if he would be able to eat. He wasn’t upset that Misa was upset - if she had an unrequited crush on him, that was her problem. But it wasn’t exactly an unrequited crush, was it? And that was what bothered him; that it was quickly becoming clear that he felt something for her, at least, but refused to give her a clean cut answer.

His thought’s were interrupted by a heavy weight on his thighs - L was laying across the expanse of the couch, head on Light’s lap.

“Why are you so distracted today, Light?”

“I’m just tired,” Light replied.

L hummed. “Do you need a kiss from your prince? To wake the sleeping beauty up?”

“Maybe,” Light found himself saying, and then found himself leaning down to meet L for a kiss. He found this happening more often lately - sharing affection with L - and was surprised to find he didn’t mind it at all. It was slightly awkward having Misa there, but even that was becoming less important in comparison to the feeling of L’s slim body wrapped around his, and his soft lips pressed against Light’s.

L shifted so he was seated on Light’s lap and could push himself up to wrap his arms around Light’s neck. Light was further surprised when L shoved his tongue past Light’s lips and pressed even closer to him, radiating a sudden intensity that Light hadn’t noticed before. The change coaxed Light to bury his hands in L’s hair, pulling him just as close as L was pulling him. The hold was nearly suffocating, and things were getting too intense too quickly for a casual Tuesday morning.

Light pulled back, using his grip in L’s hair to pull the other man away as well. “I - Misa and I should probably go to work...” 

“I’m sorry if that was off putting,” L began.

“No!” Light said quickly.

He felt movement next to him on the couch, before Misa scooted next to him to whisper, “Is he in heat?” rather loudly and eagerly in his ear.

“No,” L answered for him. “However, it’s been over two months, and I do find myself getting a bit antsy. I can’t imagine how there are omegas who only do it once every few months, or less.”

“You should probably start planning when you’re going to quit the suppressants, so I can make up an excuse to tell the team,” Misa said.

“I’ll talk with Watari about my schedule. Shall we go down?”

“Ooh,” Misa squealed. “You’re coming with us today?”

L nodded and they left, Light in much higher spirits than he woke up with. It was hard to feel bad, after all, with one of L’s hands clasped in his, and the other in Misa’s. They strode down to the investigation room like that, and it was with great regret that they parted to sit in their respective seats.

The task force began streaming in, some eyeing L suspiciously, but sitting down without complaint. The number objections to L’s presence had been decreasing as everyone was forced to admit how much more productive they were with him around, though Light supposed it was a fair reaction to be upset that they were being outdone by a model. Even Light felt humbled - well, no, it did make him quite mad to have someone do things almost better than him (not that he would ever admit that), though that was only because he was used to being the best.

“Misa?” He asked, aware suddenly that she wasn’t doing anything. Neither was he, but he at least had his computer open in the illusion of productivity.

“Huh?”

“You’re not doing anything.”

“Oh. Right,” she said, as though it had just now occurred to her that she should get to work. As though the action was physically hurting her, she turned on her computer and opened up a document. “This is so boring. You know, I was really excited to take on the Kira case. I thought it would be my most challenging ever. But I’m not used to being this stumped. It’s not exciting at all,” she complained loudly. Some of the men on the team glared at her, but they had given up trying to argue with her distracting and unproductive antics.

Light said nothing, but L rolled his chair over to peek over Light’s shoulder. “It’s quite depressing, isn’t it?”

“I guess,” Misa said. “Mostly I just want to do something. There has been no action at all - nothing for me to do in the last few months. Figuring stuff out isn’t really my thing. I just like catching the criminals.”

“You two are both impossible,” Light muttered. “Can’t you at least try to be productive?”

“Well? What are you doing for the case?” Misa retorted.

“I’m working, at least.”

“Like that’s doing us any good!”

“I can’t believe you became the world’s greatest detective with the way you act. You’re ridiculous,” Light growled.

Misa gasped in outrage. “I’ve already found Kira! You’ll excuse me if I’m a little upset that I’m not able to convict him!”

Light stood up, more upset than he should have been at the accusation after months of it. “I’m not Kira!”

“This fight is ridiculous,” interrupted a quiet voice. Light turned to face L, who met his eyes with no hesitation. “The case is at a standstill. It’s understandable that you are both frustrated, but there is nothing you can do about it. Fighting won’t help anything.”

Light glared at Misa one last time, but reluctantly conceded that L was right. He flopped back down into his chair, which rolled a few inches backward upon impact. The rest of the day passed in tedium.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I started working on a little one-shot that I got carried away with, and now it's not so little and not so much of a one-shot... whoops! Hopefully I'll finish soon and can get back to working on this! Also, sorry it's so short, I've noticed my chapters getting shorter and shorter, and while I usually make sure they're at least 2,000 words long, this was was more around 1,700, so I'm going to work on beefing them up in the future. Thanks for reading, and remember, feedback is always appreciated!


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